Differences Are Only Skin Deep
by daughterofmerlin
Summary: Ray Barnett and Anabel Walker seem to be as different as night and day. But, as Ray points out, differences are only skin deep. R&R. Chapter 6 posted!
1. July

**Chapter 1: July**

**Summary:**

Nobody ever said that moving, starting a new job, and raising two kids was easy.

**This is the story of Ray Barnett and Anabel Walker. Anabel has just moved from Baton Rogue with her twin sons, Logan and Tobias, and has to start her job at County in 12 days. Oh and I need 3 reviews before I post again. And just so you know, I've already got most of this story already written. So the faster you review, the quicker I update. And no, this is not a cheap rip-off of the Sam/Luka story.**

**The address and the hospital in Baton Rogue aren't real. If they are, purely coincidental considering I just made them up.**

**July 15, 2004**

"Ok, here we are. 576 Pennington Drive, Apartment 5A." Anabel said to her twin sons, Logan James and Tobias Quinn, who were just staring at the door and the hallway in disgust. She just smiled and put their bags down on the floor.

Anabel unlocked the door and pushed it open. She picked their bags up again, and ushered her children inside. She looked around the apartment (which not too big) and smiled again.

"Well, this is it. Home sweet home," Anabel stated as she put the bags down on the floor by the closet. Logan and Tobias looked around the apartment and were not impressed. There was newspapers and paint cans on the floor and plastic sheets were covering the sparse furniture.

The top half of the walls were painted white and the bottom half were paneled. As you walk in, there was a closet on the right and thru a doorway on the left there was the kitchen. When you walk into the kitchen, there was the refrigerator in the far corner of the room, and there were cabinets and cupboards that lined the walls. There was an island in the center of the room. On the right wall, there was another doorway that led to the living room. Against a far wall, next to the refrigerator, there was another doorway that led to the dining room. In the dining room, which had tons of windows, on the right wall, there was another door that lead to a spare bedroom. (Which would probably be turned into her dark room/music room.) On the right side of the apartment, there was a hall. In the hall there was the bathroom, and 3 bedrooms. Anabel had decided that Logan and Tobias would share a room and the spare bedroom would be their playroom. She chose the bedroom that was at the end of the hall, and the twins would have the one at the beginning of it.

"Ok. It's a fixer-upper. But give me a few weeks; it'll be home in no time." Anabel said cheerfully.

"Wrong, mom. Home is 2,000 miles away from here in Louisiana." Logan said.

"Look Logan," Anabel said as she bent down to look him in the face, "I know that you are angry that we had to move. But try to understand, I had to have a job. Chicago is one of the best places to learn because you get all kinds of stuff in the ER. That and they were the only people that would let me get off at 3-ish everyday so that way I can be home when you and Tobias get off the bus. Speaking of which, if I'm not here by the time you two are off the bus, you are to go to the lady next door. She said she would watch you until I can get here." Anabel explained.

"But I still don't understand why we had to move!" he whined.

"I'll tell you what. When I get settled in at my job, I'll bring you and Tobias in so you can watch all the traumas."

"That would be so cool!" Tobias said.

"Yeah, I guess so. So how many bedrooms does this place have?" he asked, completely changing the subject. Something that he had the tendency of doing.

"4. But you and Tobias are sharing one." Anabel answered as she stood up again.

"Aww, mom! Why?" they cried in unison.

"Because, one is mine. One is your playroom. And the other is my dark room and music room. If you really don't like that arrangement, one of you can sleep out on the balcony."

"I will!" Logan exclaimed.

"Without a bed and any blankets," Anabel finished.

"But what about when it's cold?" Logan asked.

"You'll still have to sleep out there!"

"Ok! Fine, we'll share a room!" Tobias said.

"Yes, you will. You have your playroom, and I have mine," she said to her children.

Logan and Tobias picked up their bags and asked in unison, "Which room is ours?"

"Follow me." She led them to the first door in the hall, and opened the door.

The bedroom, like everything else, had the bottom half paneled and the top half was white. They had a big closet and the room was big enough for 3 beds and 2 dressers. But Anabel had a knack for spoiling her children on their birthday and on Christmas (a privilege given that was bestowed on them all their life, due to the fact that Anabel's parents were rich), so she knew that, even though the room was spacious, it would still be too small for her children's toys.

Tobias and Logan set their stuff down on the floor and then followed their mother again as she left the room. This time she stopped at the first door on the right, which would have been the second door in the hall. She opened it, and once again, Logan and Tobias went in.

It, like the other room had a paneled bottom half, a white upper-wall, and a spacious closet.

"This is going to be your playroom," Anabel said as they took in the room.

"Where's your room, mom?" Tobias asked.

"It's at door at the end of the hall." she answered. "Now that you two like the place, you can help me get the rest of the stuff out of the SUV."

With that, they followed their mother out of the room, and went down to the family vehicle and slowly, but surely, unloaded it. Each trip was made together because Anabel knew about the dangers of the Chicago streets.

That night, Anabel tucked Tobias and Logan into their beds in their new apartment for the first time.

"I promise, I'll have it looking great by the time I go to work," she said as she kissed Logan on the head. They had set up their beds and had gotten their dressers up the stairs. Tomorrow, U-Haul would arrive with their couch, and chairs and tables and whatever else they couldn't fit in the SUV.

"Je t'aime," she whispered to Logan. Growing up in Louisiana, Anabel had learned a lot of French.

"Je t'aime," he whispered back to her.

Anabel moved from Logan's bed to Tobias'.

"Je t'aime, Tobias," she whispered.

"Je t'aime, momma," Tobias whispered.

She handed Logan is stuffed dog, Wrinkles, and Tobias his stuffed bear, Grizzly. Anabel turned on the nightlight, which barely glowed, and walked down the hall to her room. She sat on her bed and thought about the day.

It had been quite a day. Friday, Saturday, Sunday and Monday would be even busier. Tomorrow, Friday, the movers would bring the rest of their stuff. Saturday and Sunday would be spent arranging everything and at the hardware store looking for the paint colors that she decided would go in each room. Monday was Logan and Tobias' first day of the day care that would take care of them during the summer while she was at work. On Monday, she would paint their room dark blue, their favorite color, and have glow-in-the-dark stars painted on the wall. Their play room was going to light blue with clouds painted on the walls. She knew that, eventually, they would each want their own space. When that day came, the "play room" would go bye-bye and she would move all of Logan's or Tobias' stuff into the "play room." But today was not that day. She figured she would have to wait a good ten or eleven years before they wanted their own room.

Her last thought before she shut off the light and went to bed was how good it was to finally be home.

**July 27**

Today was the first time that Anabel had been nervous since the day she started med-school. Maybe it was because she was new in a big city where she knew absolutely no one? Or maybe because she couldn't afford to lose this job and hoped she wouldn't do something to make that possible? Maybe it was because today she would be called "Doctor" for the first time? She wasn't sure, and she didn't care at that point. All she knew was that she was very nervous.

As she walked through the Ambulance Bay doors, she saw that the ER only had a few patients at the moment, which was fairly common anywhere at 7:00 in the morning, and saw several doctors lounging around, what she assumed to be, the main admit desk. As she walked across the ER, several of them stopped talking and looked up at her.

As she came closer to the admit desk, a red-headed doctor with glasses and a crutch came up to her and asked, "Can I help you?"

"My name's Anabel Walker and I'm supposed to start my residency here today," she said.

"Ah, Anabel. From Louisiana. I'm Kerry Weaver and I'm the Chief of Staff here at County General," said the doctor as she stuck out her left arm, as her right was occupied with the crutch.

Anabel shook her hand and smiled.

"Welcome to County," Kerry said as she was starting to walk towards the elevators and motioned for Anabel to follow.

"I'm sorry I can't give you a personal tour or something, but I'm late for a meeting with the Board of Directors," she said as the elevator opened and she stepped inside. "Dr. Kovac will show you where everything is at and I hope you enjoy your first day here at County!" Kerry said right as the elevator door closed, separating the two of them.

Anabel just sighed and walked back to the admit desk, where a tall, dark-haired man came towards her and held out his hand.

"Luka Kovac," he said in a foreign accent that she couldn't place.

"Anabel Walker," she replied as she shook his hand.

"I'll show you to the employee's lounge where you can get your stuff settled," he said as he led the way away from the admit desk to a room full of lockers.

"This one is yours," pointing to the locker with her name on it, "and here is the combination," he said as he held out a folded piece of paper with numbers on it.

"Put your things away and meet me out by the admit desk. I'll show you around," he said politely, and with a slight nod and smile, left her alone.

After she put her coat and purse in her locker, Anabel went to the admit desk.

"Let's begin," he said kindly.

* * *

Anabel had just got done working on a patient in Exam 2 and went to the admit desk to grab another chart. She looked it over and saw that the patient was in Exam 3, waiting to be seen by a doctor.

About that time, a young doctor, possibly no older than Anabel, came strolling up to her with an appreciative look on his face. He leaned against the desk and smiled.

"Ray Barnett," he said as he stuck his hand out.

Anabel barely looked up to see him and stuck out her hand to shake his.

"Anabel Walker," she said as she lowered to clipboard away from her face to her side.

"Anabel? That's a pretty name," Ray said surely.

"Thanks," Anabel said hesitantly and turned around and walked towards Exam 3.

She heard the doctor everyone called "Carter" say to Ray, "Suave, Ray. Really." And then he chuckled. Anabel chuckled as well.

* * *

Her day went by fairly slowly. It mainly consisted of exams, and Luka, whom she learned was an attending from Croatia, showing her where everything could found. Sam, a nurse, who, Anabel quickly realized, was involved with Luka, told her to be careful of the gossip that went around the ER like a wildfire. She was grateful when 3:00 finally arrived because that meant that she was finally off. But that also meant that she had to start her other job as mom.

'_A job that I don't get paid for, either,' _Anabel thought amusingly.

Ray walked into the lounge and went to a locker she assumed was his.

"Hey Anabel. Are you off?" Ray asked.

"Yeah. Just now," she replied.

"I was wondering… Could I buy you a cup of coffee?" Ray asked a little nervously.

Anabel smirked at the nervousness in his voice, but she wasn't facing him, so he didn't see.

"I'm sorry. I can't. I have somewhere I have to be. And if I didn't, my answer would still be no."

"Why?"

"Because I don't date colleagues," she said very matter-of-factly. With that she walked out of the ER staff lounge and towards her apartment, where her sons should be getting off the bus in about 10 minutes.

_TRANSLATION:_

Je t'aime - French - I Love You

**So this is the first chapter. What do you think? Let me know if I should post more. All reviews are welcome, even unflattering ones.**


	2. August

**NaomiP - **Thank you for the advice about my ratings. I promise I will change the rating with the posting of this chapter. Anabel is rich, but a lot like John Carter, she wants to make her own way in this world. Her parents just gave her some starting out money, basically. And she doesn't work six hours a day. She works at least 8 hours, just like everyone else. She goes in around 7 every morning that she works, so that way she can get off by around 3. (The twins get up and go to their summer rec. program.) Thank you for your review. If you still have questions, don't be afraid to ask. I will gladly try answer them for you.

**Jess - **Thank you for your review. I promise to have the third chapter up by Tuesday, the 29th. I'm glad that you are proud to review my work, but you were not the first one. NaomiP was the first.

**Katie -**I will write more. The third chapter will by up by/on Tuesday, the 29th. Anabel Walker is my own fictional character from Baton Rogue, Louisiana, and has, obviously, never been in a single episode of ER. I'm sorry for the confusion. Thank you for the review.

**ShastenRothe- **I promise I will update soon. I'm glad that you find it interesting. Thank you for your review.

**Charmed huni - **I'm glad that you like my story. Thank you for the review.

**MG - **I'm glad that you think the story is great. I promise to update really soon.

**CHAPTER 2: AUGUST**

**Summary:**

Ray hopes for a first date, which then leads to a fight.

**August 3, 2004**

Anabel has been working at County General for about a week now, and each new day has been more exciting, yet confusing, than the previous one. But, despite the excitement, she is relieved when her shifts end, (they usually end around 3 or 4.) And when she gets home, Tobias and Logan always wanted to know about the trauma's that came in.

Today was no different. Anabel couldn't wait for her shift to end at 3:30, despite the excitement of 5 traumas. But, unfortunately, the clock seemed to be broken, because it said it was only 1:00. And on top of that, Ray Barnett kept trying to make conversation with her, (which, in her opinion, was not something he was very good at.)

She could hear the sirens in the distance and waited at the admit desk for her next trauma.

"18 year old male, gunshot wounds to the neck, shoulder and abdomen, BP's 90 over 60, pulse is thready," said the paramedic as they charged through the Ambulance Bay doors.

Anabel went over to the gurney to see that the bandages were soaked through with blood. She applied pressure to his neck wound as the gurney was wheeled into Trauma 1.

Pratt, Sam and Luka were in the trauma room a moment later, and Sam went to work helping Anabel getting the John Doe hooked up to the machines.

"Order 2 liters of O neg," Luka ordered Sam, but at that moment, they lost the sinus rhythm.

"Get the paddles," Luka ordered and Pratt wheeled them over.

"Charging 200, clear," Pratt said.

Still a flat line.

"Charging 250, clear," Pratt said.

Still a flat line.

"Last time. Charging 300, clear," Pratt ordered.

Still flat line.

"Anabel?" Luka asked, wanting her to check for a pulse.

She put her fingers up to his jugular, and shook her head.

"I'm calling it. Time of death 13:16," Luka said.

With that, Anabel left the room, leaving Sam, Pratt and Luka alone.

She walked over to the admit desk and wished that this day would hurry up and get over with.

The one thing that didn't make her feel better was the fact that Ray had strolled up to her again and was leaning on the admit desk.

"Lost a patient?" Ray guessed.

"Yeah," Anabel said quietly.

"It's always tough, but you can't save them all," Ray said, trying to be comforting.

Anabel smiled at his attempt to comfort her.

"Yeah, I know," she said.

"So do you wanna go out for that coffee yet? Or are you still going to tell me no?" Ray asked.

"No." Anabel replied.

"No…what? No to the coffee, or no to you turning me down?" Ray asked hopefully.

"No to the coffee. And a snowball will roll through Hell intact before I go out on a date with you."

"Ouch. Why do you keep trying to tell yourself that you're not attracted to me. It's not healthy." Ray asks.

"Yeah, neither are your delusions of grandeur." She states back as she picks up a chart and walks towards curtain 1.

The day is finally over for Anabel, even if it is 15 minutes late.

"I'm off!" she called to Kerry, who just waved at her.

Anabel walks out of the ER and past Ray, who is waiting on a trauma.

"Anabel!" Ray calls out to her.

She keeps walking, as if she doesn't even hear him.

Anabel sighed as she opened the door to her apartment 30 minutes laterand let Logan and Tobias in first. The twins immediately started with their normal routine that they had settled into since the move.

They dropped their bags that they took to summer rec. by the closet and ran towards the living room. After they got to the living room, Anabel would go in tell them to go to their room and change out of their clothes and get in the bath. They would whine and complain about not needing a bath, but they would do it once they saw the look in their mother's eye. Once their bath was over, which would only take about 10 minutes total, they would rush out to the living room again and watch their favorite TV shows, (which was a tie between X-Men, Spiderman, Batman and Superman.) Today was no different.

Logan and Tobias ran to the living room, turned on the TV, and then sat down. Luckily, X-Men wasn't on yet, so now was a perfect time to get them to get a bath and wash all the chlorine off from the pool.

Anabel locked the door to the apartment and went into the living room and stood in front of the TV.

"All right, you two. Bath, now. And then you can watch TV," she said.

"Aww, mom! We don't need a bath, we just got out of a pool!" Logan cried.

"Yeah!" Tobias agreed.

She gave them the look that said, _Don't argue with me, just do what I tell you to do,_ and with that they got up and went to their room to get clothes for the shower.

As soon as they left, the telephone rang, she went to the kitchen to get the portable phone.

"Hello?" she asked into the phone.

_"Hey, how's my favorite little sister doin'?"_ the voice on the other side of the line said.

"Oh my god! Joey?" she asked as she sat down on the couch.

_"Yeah, it's me! How you doin'?" _he asked.

"Doin' great! I finally got into a steady work pattern here in Chicago, and Logan and Tobias seemed to have adjusted well. So, all in all, it's ok. What about you? How's your dig goin' in Arizona?" Anabel asked. Joey's a paleontologist.

_"It's good. Right now, we are digging up a veloco-raptor. And I'm writing a paper on them for the people who are sponsoring this dig. I hope they like it, because, as you know, English and essay's was never my strong point,"_ Joey said.

"You're right. That was always Eric's thing," Anabel laughed. Eric is their brother, and is a linguist, and worked for the government in Washington DC.

_"That's true,"_ he laughed too. _"So what are you doing in Chicago of all places?"_

"Well, I graduated from med-school, and I need 5 years of residency. County General in Chicago was the only people that would let me off around 3 without an explanation as to why. So I put in for a position in the ER at County and here I am." Anabel said with a smile.

_"That's great. I'm happy that you graduated from med-school. Now we got 6 doctors in the family, but only two that actually treat sick people,"_ Joey joked.

Joey was right, though. Out of their family of 8 children, Anabel was the youngest and Joey was 3rd oldest. Their brother Chris was the oldest. He's 40 and a Marine, currently stationed in Iraq. Then came Mary, whom everybody called Mary Jane because her middle name was Jane. She's 38 and a lawyer with her own law firm in Boston. Then Joey, the 35 year-old paleontologist. Joey was the first one out the siblings to get a PhD in his chosen profession. Then came Matt. He's 31 and a pediatrician. Matt got his MD almost 5 years ago, and just started his own practice. Then there's the twins, Savannah and Georgia. Savannah, whom everybody called "Savvy," was 29, with a PhD in Languages. She's an Oriental Diplomat, currently on assignment in Japan. Georgia got her MD in dentistry, who is currently on her 3rd year of residency in San Antonio. Finally came Eric, whose 27, barely 14 months older than she is. Eric also got his PhD in languages, but he's a linguist who lives in Washington DC.

As Anabel thought about Joey's last comment, she picked up a picture of her and her siblings off of the end table and looked over it. It was taken last Christmas, when Chris got leave from the Marines for a week. That was before he was shipped out on February 5 for Iraq. They all looked happy together, standing in a line, with wide smiles on each of their faces. Anabel smiled as she touched the picture and remembered.

"Yeah, well I had to make the family look good, you know." Anabel laughed.

_"What are you doing? You sound kinda distracted,"_ Joey said.

"I'm just looking at the picture of us at Christmas. Do you remember?" Anabel asked.

_"Before Chris got shipped out. Yeah, that was a great Christmas,"_ Joey said.

"Do you ever worry that he won't make it home?" Anabel asked.

_"All the time,"_ Joey answered truthfully.

Before Anabel could respond, Tobias and Logan ran out of their room and back into the living room.

"Oh, no! The gruesome twosome just came in!" Anabel laughed.

_"I want to talk to them,"_ Joey said with a smile.

"Logan, Tobias, come say hi to Uncle Joey," she said to them.

Tobias was the first one to Anabel and took the phone from her.

"Hi, Uncle Joey!" he said excitedly.

Anabel just smiled as Logan pouted. She picked up the non-portable phone and handed it to him.

"Uncle Joey!" Logan said happily.

The conversation went on for a while between the three of them until finally Tobias said, "Uncle Joey wants to talk to you, again," as he handed her the phone.

Anabel took both phones from the twins and hung up the non-portable phone. She put the portable phone to her ear and turned on "X-Men" for Logan and Tobias. They eagerly sat down to watch it.

Anabel, meanwhile, had gotten up and went into the kitchen and sat down at the table.

_"So how's your music going?"_ Joey asked.

"Good, so far. I got a few new songs since last Christmas. I haven't really had a chance to work on them that much, just ideas really," she said.

_"Well, I'm sure that they're great. You write from your heart, which is what a lot of people want to hear," _Joey encouraged.

"Yeah, that's true. Or at least I hope it is," she said unsurely.

_"Of course it is," _he said.

There was a moment of silence.

_"So, is there a guy in your life, yet?"_ he asked casually.

"JOEY! No! I mean, how many guys do you know that aren't going to run when he finds out that a woman has kids?" Anabel asked impatiently.

_"That's true."_

"Well, there is one guy that has asked me out for coffee a couple of times," Anabel admitted slowly.

_"And what did you tell him?"_ he wanted to know.

"No."

_"Just like that? A plain 'no?'"_

"Yeah."

_"Why?"_

"Because, I just don't like him that way," Anabel said.

_"Yeah, right. I believe you, Pinocchio." _Joey said.

"I'm not lying!" she said defensively.

_"Yeah, you are,"_ he said calmly.

"Oh, really?"

_"Yeah."_

"And how would you know if I were?"

_"By the sound of your voice just now. And plus, you only get really shy and quite when you talk about guys that you like."_

At that moment, there was the sound of a crash and Tobias crying, so Anabel ran into the living room to see what was happening.

Anabel looked down to see her picture of her and her siblings laying on the ground broken and Tobias sitting on the floor holding his elbow.

"Joey, I gotta go," Anabel said with a sigh.

_"Yeah, me too. Love you," _Joey said.

"Love you. Bye," Anabel said.

"All right, what happened?"

**August 15, 2004**

Anabel was standing outside the ER looking through her bag. She had gotten off 10 minutes ago, and was ready to go home. But first she had to find her keys to her apartment.

At that moment, the Ambulance Bay doors opened and Ray Barnett walked outside.

"Hey," he said casually.

She looked up and said, just as casually, "Hi."

"Whatcha doin'?" Ray asked curiously.

"Looking for my keys," Anabel answered as she resumed her dig.

"Oh," Ray said uncertainly.

"Success!" she said triumphantly as she held her keys in her hand.

"I still wanna take you out for that coffee," Ray said from out-of-nowhere.

"I'm still going to tell you no." Anabel said as she looked him in the eyes.

"Why won't you go out with me?" Ray practically yelled.

"Because, I'm not some whore who just puts out for or goes out with anyone who tells her to. And that's precisely what you have made me feel like." Anabel yelled back.

"One date is not going to hurt anybody!" Ray said to her.

"Yes, it would." she replied. Ray looks confused by her remark for a second, but shrugs it off.

"Look, it's just coffee. That's it."

"Yeah, and you're hoping that coffee turns into sex at your place. I'm not stupid you know."

At that moment, Ray silenced Anabel by pulling her in tight to him and kissing her full on the lips. At first she struggled against him, but then stopped and wrapped her arms around his neck. After a few more moments of the hot kiss, Anabel pulled back easily.

"I have to go Ray," was all she said before she started towards her apartment, tears flowing down her cheeks.

**Hope you liked it. R&R**


	3. September

**Chapter 3: September

* * *

**

**ShastenRothe - **Thank you for the review. Next chapter up shortly.

**MG **- I'm glad that you think that the second chapter is even better than the first. I'm also happy that you are hooked on my story. I wouldn't have it any other way. It's a great compliment to an author to say that you love their story. I put bits of the show in to actually show that there actually is life in the ER. LOL. Anabel and Ray will develop more in this chapter. Thank you for your review.

**kay-zen - **I'm trying not to make Ray as slick as he thinks he is. Trying to show that Ray has to work in order to get Anabel. And even then, he might not get her. Thank you for the totally complimenting review.

**Terrible Fish - **I try to capture their emotions, and apparently I do a great job. I promise to have the next chapter up very shortly. But you'll have to wait and see if they get together, whether it be permanently or just for a quickie in the janitor closet (hint hint)! Who knows? Thanks for the review.

**Jess - **Thanks for the review, it made me laugh:)

* * *

**Summary:**

Some coffee, a tragedy, then a little of the Pediatrics Ward

**September 3, 2004**

The day started out fairly well for Anabel. She got Logan and Tobias to summer rec. on time, for a change, and was early enough to have a cup of coffee before her shift. To top it all off, Ray hadn't talked to her, unprofessionally, since the night that he had kissed her in the Ambulance Bay.

But what she couldn't get off her mind was why she let Ray kiss her? At first she had struggled against him, but then stopped.

_'The kiss wasn't that good!'_ Anabel told herself for the millionth time since that night. _'Yeah, and can't you feel your nose growing?'_

But, fortunately or unfortunately, depending on how she saw it, Ray came towards her at that moment.

She picked up a chart and tried to look busy, hoping that he would get the hint. Only Ray wasn't too great at picking up hints.

"I've made a decision." Ray said to Anabel as he leaned on the admit desk.

"Oh, really? And what might that be?" Anabel asked him as she put down a chart.

"I'm not going to stop asking you until you agree to go for coffee with me?" Ray said smiling.

"Well you can ask until your blue in the face, because I won't go for coffee with you, ever!" Anabel said in a raised voice and then walked off to Exam 4.

Ray followed her into Exam 4 and asked, "Coffee?"

"NO! Now get out so I can examine my patient!" she said as she shoved him out of the curtain area and then pulled the curtain shut.

Anabel hoped that he didn't mean what he said about him not giving up until she said yes. Because sooner or later, she would cave.

But Ray was true to his word. He didn't give up.

When Anabel came out from Exam 4, he asked again, "Coffee?"

"No, Ray."

Ray was always around to ask her the one word question. Before she went to the bathroom, when she came out from the bathroom, when she was standing at the admit desk, while she was waiting on an ambulance outside, while she was examining patients. He seemed to be everywhere she was.

"Coffee?" Ray asked as a severe trauma came in through the doors of Trauma Room 1.

"Ray, this is not the time," Anabel shouted at him as she intubated the patient.

Thankfully, Ray didn't ask her again while they were working on the patient. But, as soon as the patient was rolled through the doors, and up to surgery, he asked again.

"Coffee?"

"No, Ray." she said, losing her patience.

Ray kept on her like a shadow, asking her the one word question over and over again, until finally they were standing at the admit desk. She was looking over a chart and he was checking the board.

"Coffee?"

"No."

"Coffee?"

"No."

"Coffee?"

"No."

"Coffee?"

"If I say yes, will you leave me alone for more than 5 seconds?" Anabel asked, finally giving in.

"Yes."

"Then yes! I'll go for coffee with you! You understand that this is not a date, and I have to be home at 7," she said. She wanted to be home before Logan and Tobias went to bed. When she told her neighbor that she had to work late, her daughter, Emily, offered to pick them up and watch them while until she got off work. For that, Anabel was grateful.

"Why? Your dad will ground you if you break curfew?" Ray asked light-heartedly.

"Believe it or not, the ER is not my life." Anabel said as she walked away to Exam 1.

The rest of the day passed uneventfully. Ray stayed away from Anabel, fearing that she would change her mind if he kept pestering him.

When the day was finally over for both Anabel and Ray, Anabel went into the lounge while Ray just did a follow up on a patient.

"Ready for that coffee?" Ray asked as he entered the lounge to find Anabel waiting.

"Yeah, let's go before I change my mind," Anabel said.

Ray went over to his locker, took off his white coat, and put on a jean jacket. He then grabbed his knapsack and shut his locker, locking it.

Ray went over to the lounge door, and held it open for Anabel. With that, they walked out of the ER and across the street to Doc Magoo's.

They sat in a booth at Doc Magoo's waiting on their coffee. Neither one had attempted to make conversation with the other. They just ordered their coffee and that was the only thing they had said since they left the lounge.

_'God, this silence is going to kill me,'_ Ray thought. _'And on top of that, she seems annoyed and distant. Well, I'll just have to make conversation.'_

"So about our kiss…" Ray started out.

"What about it?" Anabel asked, unsure of why, in all the random conversation starters there were in the universe, he chose to talk about their kiss.

"Why did you stop struggling?" Ray wanted to know.

"I don't know. Why did you kiss me?" Anabel asked quietly.

"Because I wanted to," he said confidently and without hesitation.

"Do you always do what you want and not worry about the consequences?" she asked skeptically.

"Yeah," he replied with a smirk.

At that moment, the waitress brought their cups of coffee.

"Thank you," Anabel said to the waitress as she turned around and left.

Anabel looked at her watch and said, "Can you excuse me for a moment? I have to make a phone call."

"Yeah, sure," Ray said with a smirk.

She got up out of the booth and walked outside, making sure to pull her cell phone out of her purse. She dialed her home number.

_"Hello?"_ asked the voice on the other end of the line.

"Hey, have they eaten yet?" Anabel asked Emily.

_"Yeah, they felt like Macaroni & Cheese, so that's what I gave them. Is that all right?" _asked Emily.

"Yeah, that's fine. I'm stopping for coffee right now, and I was wondering if you would mind staying a little later than I had asked you to?"

_"No, it's no problem. Do you want me to give them a bath?"_

"Did they get one after you picked them up for summer rec.?"

_"Yeah."_

"Well, then no. They don't need one. Just give them some apple juice around 6:45 if I'm not home. It'll put them right to sleep."

_"Okay."_

"Their cups are in the cupboard to the right of the stove and the apple juice is in the fridge."

_"Okay, no problem."_

"Thanks, Emily. I'll be home shortly."

_"You're welcome."_

With that Anabel hung up the phone and went back inside towards the booth and Ray.

They made small talk for the rest of the time they were there, talking about nothing in particular.

15 minutes and 2 cups of coffee later, Anabel decided that she needed to get home.

"I'll walk you," Ray offered.

"No thanks, I'll be just fine," Anabel said.

"No really. You shouldn't be walking out on the streets by yourself anyway."

"All right," Anabel said, giving in because she knew he wouldn't give up until she did.

They walk passed uneventfully and before she knew it, they were in front of her building.

"This is me," she said.

"Oh, nice place," he said.

"Well, it isn't all mine," she laughed.

"That's not what I meant," he replied.

"I know. Thanks for walking me home," she said with a smile.

"Your welcome."

Ray took a step towards Anabel, who, in turn, took a step towards him. He leaned down and very gently kissed her on her lips. Anabel didn't struggle like the last kiss that they shared, instead she just opened her mouth and welcomed the kiss.

After a few moments of the soft, yet intense kiss, Anabel pulled back.

"Good night, Ray." And with that, she turned around and walked into her apartment building.

**September 24, 2004**

"Ray, telephone!" Frank called from the admit desk. Ray put down the chart he was currently working on and went over to the telephone.

"Hello?" he asked curiously.

Anabel walked up to the admit desk right then and saw Ray's face turn from the happy one she knew to one of pain and sadness.

"When?" he choked out.

"What's going on?" Anabel asked Frank.

"Who knows," he answered with his usual sarcasm.

"All right mom. I'll be there." Ray said as he hung up the phone.

With that, he walked outside, not stopping for anything.

Anabel, incredibly worried, followed him outside and found him leaning up against the hospital wall with tears running down his cheeks, staring up at the stormy sky.

"Ray? What's wrong?" she asked quietly.

Ray was obviously embarrassed about getting caught crying, so he quickly wiped them away.

"Nothing. Leave me alone." he said as he turned his back to her.

She just went up and gently put her hand on his shoulder.

"You don't have to be Mr. Macho with me, Ray. What happened?"

He slowly lowered his head and whispered, "My little sister. She was killed in a car accident today. Drunk driver."

"Ray, I'm so sorry." _'Nobody should have to go through that pain. I wish I could make his pain go away.'_

"Yeah. My sister wanted to be cremated so we're going to have a memorial service in her honor in a week. I gotta go and be there for a few days."

"I understand, I'll help cover your shifts. How old was she?"

"19."

"Is the drunk all right?"

"Yeah. They arrested him and I hope they throw the book at him."

"Ray, I'm here if you need me."

For the first time, he turned around and smiled, though fresh tears were starting to form in his eyes.

"Thanks."

**September 26, 2004**

"Mommy! Mommy!" Anabel heard from Logan and Tobias' room. No sooner than the first 'mommy' had gotten out, she was up and looked at the alarm clock. It said 7:00. By the time the second 'mommy' was out, Anabel was up and out the bedroom door, making her way down to the twin's bedroom.

She flicked on the hall light, and, once she got into the twin's bedroom, she flicked on the small lamp that sat between the two beds on a night stand.

Anabel sat down on Logan's bed first and saw that he was sweaty.

"Logan, sweetie, what's wrong?" Anabel asked, trying to mask her concern with a gentleness.

"I don't feel good," Logan said weakly.

Anabel felt his head and found that he was hot.

"Oh, sweetie, you're burning up. I'll be right back. I'm just going to check on Tobias and get the thermometer."

Anabel got up from Logan's bed and went to Tobias'. She looked him over before asking him, "What's wrong, baby?"

"I don't feel good, either."

She put her hand on his head, and indeed he was hot as well.

"Ok, I'll be right back," she said before she left the room for the bathroom to get the thermometer. After she grabbed the ear thermometer, she made her way to her room to get her stethoscope.

Anabel ran back to Logan and Tobias' room and sat back down on Logan's bed.

"Ok, sit up," she told him.

Logan scooted up in his bed as Anabel put the thermometer in his ear. It beeped not even 10 seconds later, and it showed that he had a fever of 103.9. Anabel put the thermometer down on the bed, and lifted up his pajama shirt to listen to his breathing.

"Logan, sweetie, I want you to take some deep breaths for momma, ok." she told him.

He just nodded and took a deep breath as Anabel put her stethoscope to his chest.

"Good. In. Out. In. Out. In. Out. In. Out. In. Out. In. Out." she said as he breathed when she told him to.

"Ok. Sweetie, momma's gonna have to take you to the hospital, all right? I want to try to get dressed, all right? I have to go over to Tobias."

He just nodded again, and started coughing until he was purple. His coughing spell over for the moment, his color returned to normal.

Anabel grabbed the thermometer and her stethoscope and went to Tobias' bed again.

She took his temperature, and it was 101.2. She told him to breathe in and out, just like she had with Logan, and he indeed was wheezing.

At that moment, Tobias got up and ran to the toilet, where he began to vomit.

By this time, Logan was already dressed, so Anabel just grabbed some jeans and a shirt for Tobias, and made her way to the bathroom.

"I'm sorry, mama. I didn't mean to," Tobias cried.

"Sweetie, it's ok. I'm not mad. I have to get you to the hospital, too. So I need you to help me, ok," Anabel said.

Tobias nodded his head, and she got him dressed and the picked him up and lifted him towards the sink to rinse his mouth out with water.

"Mama, I'm cold," Logan said.

"Ok, Logan," Anabel called out. "Are you cold, Tobias?"

"Mmm-hmm," was all he said as he slightly dozed off on her shoulder.

She went back into their bedroom and pulled out their "travel blankets." (The blankets Anabel covered them up with at night when they moving to Chicago.)

After she put Tobias down, she wrapped him in his small dinosaur blanket, and Logan in his equally small stars blanket. She picked up Tobias again, grabbed her keys and put them in her mouth, grabbed her purse, opened the door with her free hand and ushered a dawdling Logan out, before she closed it and locked it. Anabel then picked Logan up with her other arm and carried them down the stairs.

"Somebody help me!" Anabel shouted as she carried Tobias and Logan into the ER.

"Anabel, what's wrong?" asked Ray, who usually always took the morning shifts.

"They woke up complaining that they weren't feeling good, so I took their temperatures. Logan's was 103.9 and Tobias' was 101.2. Both have wheezing in all four quadrants and a cold sweat. Tobias has been vomiting, and Logan turns purple whenever he coughs. They lost consciousness about 2 minutes ago." Anabel said as Ray came over and took Tobias out of her arms and took him to Trauma 1. Anabel followed him, but went into Trauma 2 instead.

"Which one do I have?" Ray asked as Anabel opened the doors between the two trauma rooms sot that way she could move back and forth between the two rooms easily.

At that moment, Carter, Jane, and Sam came into Trauma 1, while Luka, Abby and Haleh came into Trauma 2.

"What do we got?" Luka asked.

"Tobias, Ray," she answered to Ray before she went on to explain the symptoms of Logan to Luka.

Sam came over to Anabel and convinced her to stay out of the way while they worked. Anabel was shedding silent tears at this point.

"Are they your nephews?" Luka asked, trying to calm her down as they took an X-Ray of Logan's chest to see what was wrong with his lungs.

Anabel just shook her and head and said, "No. They're my sons. Please, help them."

At the word of 'sons,' Ray's head shot up and everyone looked shocked. But they continued to work on Tobias and Logan.

"Don't worry. They'll be alright." Sam encouraged as she stood next to Anabel.

"Got the X-Ray's for both of them," Haleh said as she handed Luka Logan's X-Rays and Ray Tobias' X-Rays.

The X-Rays showed nothing.

"Do you know if they ingested something that they are allergic to, or anything?" Luka asked.

"They're allergic to strawberries. Last night, I bought some strawberries. I set them down on the counter and went to check the phone messages. I told them not to eat any. I didn't think that they had." Anabel said suddenly.

"What usually happens when the eat strawberries?" Luka asked.

"They get a fever and their chests tighten up."

"Ok, right now they are stabilized. So we are going to get them up to Pediatrics where they are going to monitor them." Luka said.

"Thank you," Anabel said as Haleh and Abby wheeled Logan out of Trauma 2, and Pratt and Jane wheeled Tobias out of Trauma 1.

Ray came up beside Anabel and asked, "Do you want me to go up with you?"

Anabel just nodded her head, and Ray walked her out of the Trauma Room and towards the elevator.

**Later That Day**

"Momma?" Logan asked.

Logan and Tobias had been admitted to Pediatrics 15 hours earlier, and were put in the same room.

"I'm here, Logan." Anabel smiled.

"Where am I?" he asked weakly.

"You're in the hospital."

"Why?"

"Because you got sick earlier, honey."

"How long do I have to stay here?"

"Just a day or two. They want to make sure you're alright. Logan, last night when you and Tobias were in the kitchen with the strawberries, did you eat any?" Anabel asked gently.

Logan just nodded his head slowly.

"Are you mad, momma?"

"No sweetie. I'm not mad. You can't eat those anymore, ok. They make you sick. All right?"

Logan nodded again.

"Ok."

2 days later, Logan, Tobias, and Anabel finally went home, as long as Logan and Tobias took some antibiotics twice a day. The moment they got home, Anabel put them straight to bed, (because they were sleeping already,) and she fell asleep on the couch, exhausted from the last 3 days of hell.

* * *

**Next Chapter Summary:**

3 visits, a birthday party, and Halloween!

* * *

It's the longest chapter, yet! 


	4. October

**Chapter 4: October**

**MG - **You were the one person that reviewed the last chapter. So thanks a bunch for it.

**Summary:**

3 visits, a birthday party, and Halloween!

**October 1, 2004**

Anabel looked around her apartment. It was totally trashed. Logan and Tobias (who, evidently, were feeling much better) left everything out on the floor. There were blankets, soda cans, dishes, coloring books, crayons, videos, and video games on the floor. She put on some music, just a random mix, because she didn't like just one style of music, (when people commented on her weird taste in music, Anabel just told them that she was eclectic,) changed into her "cleaning-up clothes (which was a pair of short-shorts and a tank top) because she knew she would get hot.

She started out picking up the blankets first, and folded them; then she recycled the soda cans and put the dishes in the sink. She had just started picking up the dirty clothes when a knock on the door.

Anabel turned the music down to low, and walked to the door, making sure to look in the peep hole. She smiles when she sees it's Ray. Anabel quickly ran her hands over her hair, trying to smooth it out, and then opened the door.

She smiled at him and leaned against the doorframe.

"Technically, this is called stalking, you know," Anabel said casually with a smile.

"Technically, it's only stalking if you enjoy it," Ray replied.

Anabel couldn't help it. She let out a small chuckle and a big smile.

"How are Logan and Tobias?" Ray asked a little loudly.

"Sleeping. So shh," Anabel said as she put her pointer finger to her lips. "I wanted to be sure that they were alright, so I kept them home all week. You can come on in if you want," she said as she left the door open and walked back into the living room. "Sorry, the apartment is messy, but the maid is in the process of cleaning it," Anabel said as she smiled.

Ray followed her into her apartment, smiling as she cracked her joke about the maid being in the process of cleaning. He noticed, for the first time, what she was wearing and smiled again, but this time, appreciatively.

"How was the service?" she asked in regards of his sister's memorial service.

"Good. I shared a story of what it was like to grow up with her and all. My mom told me that I needed to get back to work, so here I am." Ray said as he continued to look at Anabel.

_'God, could she be even more perfect. Perfect legs, nice ass, very touchable back and shoulders, kissable neck, and her hands look like they would fit perfectly into mine.'_

Anabel smiled to herself. She couldn't help it. She knew precisely what Ray was looking at and it made her feel sexy to get checked-out by a rocker.

"Any more fevers? Vomiting?" he asked Anabel, changing the subject back to the twins, as they sat down on the couch.

"They both have a slight fever of 99, Tobias hasn't puked anything else up, and Logan is still coughing a lot, but not turning purple anymore." Anabel said as she looked down at her lap.

"Well, that's some good news," Ray said.

"Yeah, it is." Anabel said.

"Anabel?" Ray asked.

She turned to look up at him and answered quietly, "Yeah?"

"Why didn't you tell me that you had children?" he wanted to know.

"Would it have mattered?" she asked in return.

"No," Ray answered truthfully. "But why didn't you tell me?"

"Would you have stayed away if you had known that I had kids?"

"Do you always answer a question with a question?"

"No."

"So why won't you answer my question?"

"You want to know why I didn't tell you? Because I'm the kind of person that likes to keep her private life private! I don't go blabbering around that when I 20, I made a really stupid mistake and slept with a guy that I barely knew. And before you think anything, yes he does know that he is a father, and no, he doesn't care. Just sends his child support checks every month like he's supposed to. To Logan and Tobias, all their father is, is a check every month," Anabel confessed to Ray.

"Was he even there when you had Tobias and Logan?" Ray asked curiously.

"Yeah. He picked Tobias' name and I picked Logan's." Anabel answered.

"Do you know where he's at?"

"Last I heard, he was teaching in some high school, lived in California, is married to his high school sweetheart, and they have a daughter together." Anabel answered coolly.

"What was his name?"

"Thomas Castle."

"I'll kill him." Ray said quietly.

"What?" Anabel asked appalled.

"He barely acknowledges you and Tobias and Logan, yet he's got a wife and a daughter out in California! Logan and Tobias deserve a father, not a check every month."

"Ray, I know that Logan and Tobias deserve a father! That's what I've been trying to find for them since the day they were born. Sure, plenty of guys liked me. But none of them liked my kids. You are actually the first guy that hasn't run away from me after you found out about Logan and Tobias. But, I don't care that Tom isn't here! I don't care that he's married with a daughter! I'm happy with my life! I'm happy with just me and my sons! Logan and Tobias don't know their father, they don't want to know him. And he doesn't want to know them. And I'm perfectly fine with that," Anabel said in a sudden out burst of her feelings.

Ray just sat there, dumbfounded. He couldn't believe that Anabel had just told him all of that. She was a very private person and had probably just told Ray more in two minutes about her life than in the entire three months they'd known each other.

"I want you to leave, Ray," Anabel said quietly, not looking him in the eyes, instead she looked down at her lap.

"Leave? Why?" Ray asked, truly confused.

"Because you're going to leave anyway. I want you to leave before Logan and Tobias become attached to you. I don't think they can stand having another guy that they like to just disappear. I know that I can't stand it."

"I'm not going to walk out of their lives. That I promise. I will always be their friend," Ray answered genuinely.

"Do you swear?" Anabel asked suspiciously.

"I swear."

With that, Anabel leaned in and kissed him. The kiss was long and passionate, breaking occasionally to kiss and nibble each other's jaws and necks.

Anabel was completely and totally lost. Her entire body was focused only on Ray, and nothing else.

Only when Ray leaned her back on the couch, his body covering hers, did she come to her senses. She abruptly pushed Ray off of her and sat up on the couch, fixing her slightly pushed up shirt.

"Anabel? What is it? What's wrong?" Ray asked confusedly as he stood up off of the couch.

"Ray, we can't do this. Please, leave." Anabel said, not looking at him.

Ray didn't say another word. He just turned around and left her apartment.

As soon as the door closed, Anabel fell back onto the couch, buried her face in a pillow, and cried.

_'You're falling in love with him. Why did you push him off, especially when you needed it so bad?'_ was her last thought before sleep over took her.

Ray, on the other hand, banged his head on the wall next to her door, knowing for certain that he just messed up any chance of him and Anabel having a relationship.

_'You're an idiot! You shouldn't have done that!'_ was the last thing he thought before he made his way to the stairs and out of the apartment building.

**October 12, 2004**

"What are you doing today?" Ray asked Anabel, who was there to pick up her paycheck, with a smirk.

"Having a birthday party for Tobias and Logan," she responded without looking at him.

"Can I come?" he asked hopefully.

"Ray, this is a children's party. Not a sex party. And don't you say that isn't why you want to come. I know how you think, Ray Barnett. You are hoping that after everyone goes home, you'll get lucky and get me into bed." Anabel said without a doubt.

**"**Yeah. Yeah, that's true." Ray admitted with a smile.

"I know it's true. You're not exactly the hardest person in the world to figure out."

With that, Anabel walked out of the ER and hurried towards her apartment. After all, the party was in 3 hours, and she hadn't set one thing up yet. Plus, she still had to pick up the birthday cake and ice cream from the store.

_3 hours, 15 minutes later: 3:00 PM_

There's a knock on the door and Anabel thought it was more people for Logan and Tobias' birthday party, so she didn't even bother to look in the peep hole. So she was shocked when she opened the door and found Ray standing in the hallway with two medium-sized presents.

"What are you doing here?" Anabel asked, surprised to say the least.

"Logan and Tobias invited me. Mind if I come in?" he asked.

"No, not at all. Things are more hectic than I thought possible with just me as the only adult, so another adult would be good."

"Where do I put these?" Ray asked, indicating to the two presents.

"Oh, put those in the living room. There's already a whole stack of presents in there anyway, so you can't miss it." Anabel said with a laugh.

After Ray put his presents in the living room, he went through the swinging doors that led from the living room to the kitchen. He saw Anabel in their putting 12 candles on the cake, 6 for Logan and 6 for Tobias.

"So how old are they now?" he asked curiously.

"Six."

Just then Logan and Tobias came into the kitchen from their playroom, which is where all of the kids have gathered until it was time for presents, games or cake and ice cream.

"RAY!" Tobias and Logan shout happily and throw their arms around him.

"Hey, guys! Happy birthday! Which one of you is older?"

"I'm older," Logan said proudly as he pointed to himself.

"Mom, can Ray stay? Please, please, please, PLEASE?" Tobias begged.

"Yes, Tobias, calm down. He's staying. Now go play with your friends." Anabel said as she shooed them out of the kitchen.

"YEAH!" they said in unison and went back to play with their playroom.

"What happened to me not being invited?"

"The twin's want you here, and today is their birthday. That is the only reason why you are still here Ray Barnett." Anabel said a little menacingly.

_3:15 PM_

"Ok, kids! It's time for presents!" Anabel called down the hall to the playroom. No sooner than the word, 'presents' had left her mouth, all of the kids, 20 in total, 21 if you counted Ray (who was really a big kid himself), charged out of the playroom and into the living room.

"Ok, kids. I want you to sit in a circle and Logan and Tobias, I want you to sit in the middle. Good. Now which present do you want to open first?"

"The big one on top!" they cried in unison.

"Ok. To Tobias and Logan. From Jake." Anabel said to them as she read the tag.

And so it went. Present after present after present. There were far more than 20 presents. More than 30. There were around 40 of them. Considering how most of the guests just got a big box and put both of the presents in it, it was a lot. The other presents that weren't from the guests were from Anabel's brothers and sisters and her parents. Logan and Tobias were very excited to receive fossilized teeth from their Uncle Joey, and all of the guests were just as impressed with teeth as the twins were. Soon they were down to the last 4 presents, and those were from Ray and Anabel, and from someone else.

"To Logan. From Ray." Anabel read.

Logan eagerly took the package from her and ripped the paper off and opened the box.

"Wow! It's a Gameboy Advanced! And there is also 6 games with it! Thanks Ray!" Logan exclaimed as he ran over to hug him.

"Glad you like it, Logan!" Ray said with a smile.

Logan sat back down in the middle of the circle, after Anabel took the box away from him for the time being.

"To Tobias. From Ray." Anabel read.

Tobias, like his brother, ripped the paper off of the package and opened the box.

"I got a Gameboy Advanced, too! Only mine is green! And look, I got the same games you got, too!" Tobias said happily.

"That's the point. That way you can't fight over which one is yours or the games." Ray said.

Tobias, like Logan, ran over to Ray to and gave him a hug. Then he had his box taken away from him by Anabel and he sat back down in the middle.

"To Logan and Tobias. Love Mom." Anabel said as she put the box down in the center of the circle between the two of them.

They ripped the paper off of the box, and Anabel opened it with a knife because the box was tapped shut.

"MOM! WOW!"

"What did you get?" the kids asked.

"It's the R/C Flying UFO! Two of them! One for each of us!"

"Oh, you guys are so lucky! My mom won't get me one of those!" a boy named Greg said.

A chorus of, "Neither will mine" went around the room.

"Thanks, mom!" Logan and Tobias said happily.

The last box was a small one. It was really thin, and kind of rectangular.

"To Logan and Tobias. From Dad." Anabel read.

They looked at the box in disgust, but took it anyway.

They opened it and inside were two checks for $50 each.

"Jeez. That's what we're worth to dad now. $50." Logan said sadly.

Anabel sensed their sad mood and decided to cheer them up.

"Why don't you guys go play in the playroom while I get the games set up?" she said cheerfully.

That immediately brought a smile to their faces and all of the kids ran to the playroom.

"God damn him!" Anabel exclaimed under her breath as she went into the dining room to get the bags of games and rewards.

"Who?" Ray asked as he helped her with the bags of games.

"Thomas! He's never sent them jack-shit for their birthday or for Christmas, but now, all of a sudden, he does! It messes up their head." Anabel exclaimed again.

"Hey, don't worry about it. Just make sure they buy something they really want with the money. Don't get angry. After all, it is their birthday." Ray said calmly as he pulled her into a hug.

"Yeah, you're right," she said in a soft voice.

"Guys, it's time for games!"

There was parade of boys coming down the hall and into the living room again.

They played games for the next hour, until everyone had one a prize, and then Anabel said that it was time for cake.

"Happy birthday to you. Happy birthday to you. Happy birthday, Logan and Tobias! (Some people said Tobias and Logan) Happy birthday to you!" Every one sang as they blew out the candles on the cake.

"What did you wish for?" Ray asked.

"If I told you, it wouldn't come true!" Logan said.

"Ok, time to cut the cake and have some ice cream!" Anabel said as she served up the cake and ice cream.

All to soon, but not soon enough for Anabel, all the guests went home with their prizes. Logan and Tobias ran down to their playroom to play with all of their new toys, leaving Anabel (with Ray's help) to clean up the kitchen, living room and dining room.

"Great party, Anabel. I know I couldn't of pulled it off." Ray complimented.

"That's because you're not a mom. Mom's can do anything they set their minds to."

"Hey, guys can do things they set their minds to, too!" Ray defended.

"Oh, really? Like what?" Anabel questioned.

"Like this," and then Ray pulled her to him for a very passionate kiss.

Meanwhile, in the doorway, Logan and Tobias just stared at their mom and Ray kissing and smiled.

"Well, I just got my wish," Tobias whispered into Logan's ear and they tip-toed out of the room back to theirs, just as Ray broke apart from the kiss.

"Good-bye, Ray." Anabel said as she pushed him to the door and then closed it in his face. Ray smiled on the other side of the door and then walked down the stairs.

Anabel smiled on her side of the door, and then proceeded to clean up her apartment from the party.

**October 31, 2004**

"So what are you to again?" Anabel asked her sons.

"Mom, for the thousandth time. I'm a pirate, he's a zombie." Logan whined.

"Oh, that's right. So are you two going to have fun at this Halloween party?"

"Yeah," Tobias said.

"Who's all going to be there?"

"Timmy, Keith, Greig, Graig, Johnny, Justin, Cody, us, Matt, Eric, Travis, Jason, Billy and Timmy's parents."

"Are you going to go trick-or-treating?"

"Of course mom. It's not Halloween unless you go trick-or-treating." explained Logan.

At that moment, there was a knock on the door.

"That's Timmy. Bye, mom. Love ya." Logan said.

"Love ya, too. Don't forget your candy sacks." Anabel said as she kissed Logan on the cheek.

"Aw, mom!" he complained.

"Love ya, Tobias." she said as she kissed him as well.

"Bye, mom," they both called out as they opened the door, ran out with their candy bags in tow, and practically slammed the door.

Anabel then saw two bags next to the door. She quickly stood up, picked them up, and ran down the stairs.

"Hey, you two will need these!" she called to the twins as they got in a van.

"Oh, yeah! Thanks mom." Logan said as they took the bags from Anabel.

"Have a great time!" Anabel called as she closed the door and the van started to pull away. As soon as the van was out of sight, she started walking back up the stairs to her apartment.

_'This is just sad. My six-year-old sons have a better social life than I do,'_ she thought as she entered her apartment. _'They're going to a Halloween sleepover and I'm stuck here doing nothing.'_

As soon as Anabel sat down on the couch, there was a knock on the door. She thought that Logan or Tobias forgot something, so she opened it without looking to see who it was. She was shocked to see Ray standing in her hallway.

"What are you doing here, Barnett? Because Logan and Tobias aren't here," she asked skeptically.

"Yeah, I know. I came here to see you."

"Oh, really?" Anabel asked as she raised an eyebrow.

"Yeah." Ray replied with a nod and a smile.

"Come on in, you're letting all the heat out," she said with a hint of irritation.

Ray didn't think twice. As soon as she had her back turned, Ray rushed into her apartment and closed the door, making sure to lock it to prevent any unwanted visitors.

"What're you doing now that Tobias and Logan are out of the house?" Ray asked curiously as they sat down on her couch.

"Relaxing until you knocked on the door," she said as she leaned her head back on the sofa and closed her eyes.

Ray noticed the game of "Candy Land" on the floor and smiled.

"Do you wanna play Candy Land?" he asked with a smile.

"You do realize that that is a little kids game and it might ruin your reputation if I go to work and tell them how you wanted to play it, right?" Anabel asked him like he was stupid.

"Yes, I know it's a kids game. But, I'll let you in on a little secret. Sometimes, it's ok to act like a little kid." Ray answered her as if she were 5.

"Ok, fine. You're on."

_An Hour Later_

"This is the 3rd game you've lost, Barnett," Anabel proudly stated as she crossed the finish line.

During the hour that they played the game, they've changed positions. Anabel is on one side of the board, propped up on her right forearm. Ray is on the other side of the board, propped up on his left forearm.

"I'll never live it down. I got beat by a girl. Not once. But three times!" Ray whined loudly.

"Oh, you're one of those guys!" Anabel rolled her eyes exaggeratedly.

"Yeah, well forgive me. But it puts a major blow on a guys ego to get beat by a girl."

Anabel and Ray just laughed.

At that moment, awkwardness melted away. At that moment, things became right between the two young doctors.

They felt the change, and stopped laughing. They looked into each other's eyes and Ray slowly leaned across the board towards Anabel. Anabel did the same towards Ray.

Their lips met softly and uncertainly. The kiss was like that shared between two teenagers, kissing on her front porch after their first date. Unsure. Hesitant. Ray was unsure of what Anabel wanted. He knew what he wanted, but he didn't want to push the matter.

He opened his mouth, letting his tongue slip out and run along her bottom lip, seeking permission to enter. She granted it when her mouth opened and let her tongue slip out to reacquaint with its old friend.

Ray knew, that just because they were kissing didn't mean he should do what he really wanted to. Slide across the board, pin Anabel to the ground, and make love to her throughout the night. He knew he had to take it slow.

Anabel moaned softly as Ray continued to kiss her. Their kisses, however brief, have never been this soft or gentle. They were always passionate and rough, but in a good way. She wanted Ray to touch her, but knew why he didn't.

_'I guess I'm just going to have to take the initiative.'_ she thought to herself.

As she broke their kiss and Ray looked at her questioningly, Anabel moved across the "Candy Land" board until she straddled his lap. Anabel then leaned over to kiss Ray once again as she ground herself into him.

Clothes came off slowly, piece by piece. First went the shirts, then went the pants (Ray having took off his shoes about halfway through the first game of Candy Land). Ray took Anabel's hair down from her high ponytail.

As soon as they were down to their underwear, Anabel noticed something about Ray. She noticed just how nice of a body that Ray had. Six pack, pecs to die for, killer biceps. She had known from their few kisses that Ray had a great body but this went even beyond her comprehension.

Ray moved his hands all over Anabel's body. He loved to fill his hands with her soft, but large breasts just as much as he loved to run his hands over the soft skin of her back. Ray cupped her breasts once more before slowly moving his hands along her bra to the hook in the back.

Before he could get his grip on the bra to unhook it though, Anabel sat straight up and smiled a naughty smile as she shook her head.

"Not here. My bedroom's at the end of the hall," Anabel half moaned, half groaned.

Ray just smiled at her before he flipped her over to where he was now on top. Anabel expected him to take her right there, but Ray surprised her when he just lifted himself up onto his hands and knees, then lifted his knees until he was on his feet. He then balanced himself on the balls of his feet as he stood up, grabbing one of her hands and taking her with him. Ray then pulled her close to him again and grabbed her under her thighs and lifted her up his body.

He kissed her again. This time, a little rougher than the previous ones. He slowly walked through her apartment until her got to the door at the end of the hall. The door that promised him he would finally be able to make love to the woman in his arms.

Ray pushed Anabel against the door and was about to open it, but Anabel beat him to it. With a flick of her wrist, the door opened and the couple practically fell in. Ray quickly regained their balance and kicked the door shut.

Anabel pushed forward, making Ray go back towards the door. He broke their kiss and looked at her puzzled. She just smiled and reached behind him to lock the door.

Understanding spilled over Ray, and he smiled as he kissed her again and took her to the bed, then, ever so slowly, lowered her down onto it.

Anabel broke their kiss as she pushed on Ray's shoulders. But that didn't stop him form kissing other parts of her body. He slowly worked his way down her.

He kissed her neck, then her breasts, the space between her breasts, her ribs, her stomach. He stopped just above the hem of her black lace boy brief panties. He sucked on her skin their instead of going down further.

Anabel moaned, but then a blaring noise went off inside of her head. She twisted herself until she rested on her left forearm, reached over to her bedside table, and pulled out a string of condoms, instinctively knowing that one wasn't going to be enough.

When Ray felt Anabel turn on her side, he looked up, but still continued to her kiss her stomach. Once he saw that Anabel had pulled out a string of condoms and not just one, he smiled and gave a slight chuckle into her bellybutton.

"God, Anabel, you are so beautiful," Ray whispered into her stomach.

Anabel smiled, laid back on the bed pulling Ray up to meet her face, and after making sure that a condom was on Ray, let Ray give her the most intense pleasure she'd had ever known.

_Later that night:_

"Mmm…that feels good," Anabel groaned as Ray nuzzled her neck and rubbed her stomach with his hand.

"You feel so good, Anabel," Ray whispered in his ear.

"Was it worth the wait?" she asked softly.

"Oh, yeah," Ray said as he slid back over top of her and began the whole process of making love to her again.

**Next time:**

"Slumber Party?", Hot Couple, and the Janitor's Closet


	5. November

**Chapter 5: November

* * *

**

**MG - **Thanks for your review. I just thought that if my mum had a "boyfriend" like Ray Barnett, I would wish for that kiss too. LoL.

**NaomiP - **Of course I made Ray wait. I'm not making Anabel into a whore, or an "easy lay," because it just doesn't work for her. I didn't think that chapter 4 was that bad, just them kissing, so I'm not sure why it would need to go up to an "M" rating. I know about how it only takes a few hours to react to allergies, I just made an error in the story, that I have corrected. Even though her sons are allergic to strawberries, she's not, and she enjoys them, so that's why there was strawberries in the house. It's kinda like one of those incidents where you turn you're back for one minute and when you turn back around your kid is gone. They ate some while her back was turned, while she went to check her phone messages. (Though sometimes allergic reactions don't clear up right away, even with treatment.Because, I'm allergic to strawberries and sometimes it takes at most a week to clear up, even with the medicine.)Anyway, she told them not to eat them, but honestly, how many 6 year olds always listen to their mother? But thank you for the review, and citing me on the errors. They have been corrected.

**Smilingdork - **Thank you for the review.

**ShastenRothe - **Guess I must of missed the episode where Doc Magoo's burnt down. Oh, well. Let's pretend that it didn't. Ray's not one to show his emotions though. So he's kinda holding it all inside, for a while. Maybe, eventually, Anabel will talk Ray into telling her how he really feels. Kinda like that episode with Luka and the Bishop, where he confesses that he feels responsible for his family's death.

**TO ALL READER'S: **Trust me on this! This is how I reacted when I saw my mom in bed with her "guy friend" as she called him. Just questions, too young to know what really happened, at that time. Now that I look back on it, it was oh, so obvious. And this is the way my room is, so trust me, it looks good.

* * *

**Summary:**

"Slumber Party?", Hot Couple, and the Janitor's Closet

* * *

**November 1, 2004**

Ray knew that this was, without a doubt, the best Monday morning he'd had in a long time. He woke up as the sun made its way through the lime green curtains. At first, he didn't know where he was, or who was sleeping next to him, but then he looked down and saw extremely long, dark brown hair and then remembered what had happened the night before. As he remembered, he couldn't help but smile.

Not wanting to disturb Anabel's much needed rest, for they had indeed used the entire string of condoms, Ray just laid his head back down on the tye-died green pillow case. He took the opportunity to look around the room.

Everything in it was in varying shades of green. The walls were a light green, the shelves were dark green, the desk and the computer were lime green, the headboard and footboard were a forest green, the comforter and sheets were tye-died green, and down on her hardwood floor, he saw that she had 4 shag carpet green rugs. They all overlapped each other and one was light green, another was dark green, another was forest green and the final one was lime green. He supposed that she put the rugs down to "tie the room together." It was obvious that her favorite color was green.

He smiled as he took in the room. It was then that he felt very soft lips kiss his neck. Ray just smiled again and lifted his head a little so Anabel could have better access to his neck.

"Mmm…morning," Anabel moaned into his neck as he started to lightly stroke her hip (which was one of her biggest erogenous zones, he had learned, third only to her neck and back).

"A very good afternoon, you mean," Ray added.

"God, I could stay like this forever!" Anabel whispered as she wriggled down Ray's body so she could rest her head on his chest.

"Me too," he smiled.

"What time is it?" she asked lazily.

Ray looked at the clock. "1:20."

"NO! It can't be that late already!" Anabel whined.

"Why can't it be?" Ray asked.

"Because that means that the twins will be home soon," she explained.

"What time do they get home?" he questioned.

"3:30, usually."

"Well, I know how we can pass the time till then." Ray said as he gently pushed Anabel on her back and he went over top of her.

Hours passed, and they weren't entirely uneventful.

* * *

As Tobias and Logan made their way up the stairs, they wondered why their mother hadn't been in front of their building waiting for them. They knew that she wasn't working today, so they just wondered why.

When they got to the front door, they noticed it was locked, not unusual in itself, as the door was always locked, with or without people behind it.

Luckily, Anabel had given them both spare keys for just this kind of situation. Going inside, they dropped their bags on the floor and locked the front door, just like their mother had always done. They went to the living room, only to find their mother's shirt and shorts and a pair of jeans and a tee-shirt that they had never seen before.

They immediately went in search of their mother. They started in her music room, which, as of recently, was were she spent a lot of her time when they weren't home and she was off. When they found that she wasn't there, they looked in their room, and then in their playroom, because she might have been cleaning it. When they found that she wasn't there either, they finally went to her room down the fall. Only when they got there, the door was locked, which was highly unusual in itself.

"Mom?" Logan questioned as he knocked on the door.

"Mom?" Tobias called out through the door.

Inside the bedroom, Anabel and Ray were sleeping off their exhaustion from their sated desire. Ray heard two "mom's" and knew that Tobias and Logan were home. This wasn't exactly how he wanted to be found. Ray had planned to be out the door before the twins got home. But, obviously, things didn't go as planned.

Anabel was laying half on top of Ray. Her head was on his chest, her arm draped across his abdomen and one of her legs was in between his. He didn't really want to disturb her much needed rest, but he knew that Logan and Tobias would freak if they thought their mom wasn't here. So Ray gently moved out from underneath Anabel and made sure she was still sleeping before he pulled on his boxers. After making sure she was covered up above her shoulders, he made sure the hole in his boxers was buttoned and then went to unlock the door. He slowly opened it and saw two very shocked 6-year-old faces.

Logan and Tobias were shocked, to say the least, when Ray answered their mother's door in his underwear. They were even more taken aback when they saw their mother turn over in her bed and saw that she wasn't wearing a shirt, as the covers had revealed a little bit of her shoulders.

Logan was the first one to regain his composure.

"Slumber party?" he asked naively, for he truly thought that his mother and Ray were having one.

Ray just let out a little laugh and inwardly thanked God that Logan and Tobias apparently didn't realize what him and their mother had been doing.

"Yeah, we had a slumber party." he said coolly.

Tobias asked, "Did you two have fun?"

"Yes, we did. Not that it's any of your business," called Anabel from bed.

"Hi, mom," Logan and Tobias called in unison.

"Come here," Anabel said to the twins. They moved past Ray and climbed on bed, over the covers, and Ray, not wanting to be left out, went over to the bed and climbed under the covers with Anabel. Ray leaned in and gently kissed Anabel on the lips.

"So does this mean you two are going to get married?" Logan inquired.

"Why would we get married?" Anabel asked as she looked at her son like he had 9 heads.

"Because you and Ray had a slumber party! Johnny said that when a boy and a girl had a slumber party together, they would get married," Tobias assumed.

"No, your mom and I aren't getting married. We just are good friends." Ray clarified.

"Oh. So Johnny lied?" Logan asked with a touch of regret.

"Apparently," Ray said.

"Hey, why don't you guys get on out of here and go watch TV, ok?" Anabel said.

"Ok. Race you to the living room!" Tobias challenged as they ran out of the room.

"They're a handful. I don't know how you do it."

"A lot of patience." Anabel responded. "Get dressed. If you're going to spend the night here tonight, you need to go get some work clothes from your place."

"I ca-. Whoa! Wait a minute! I'm spending the night here? When did we even talk about this?"

"Your spending the night because I'm a demanding lover, and I want you to. Do you have a problem with that?" she asked sassily.

"No," he answered simply.

"Good, now I'm satisfied." Anabel said with a grin.

"Well, then good. But what I was going to say before you shocked me into saying that I was going to spend the night was that I couldn't get dressed just because of the fact that I don't have any clothes. They are all out in the living room." he pointed out.

"Good point. Well, fine. I'll get dressed and go out and get your clothes for you."

Ray watched as Anabel very slowly got dressed for him. It took a while because Ray kept pulling her down onto the bed with him and kissing her body until she came back to her senses and pushed him off of her.

After this had happened the fourth time, she was already dressed, but she was sure Logan and Tobias would be wanting their after-school snacks by now.

"Ok, stud. That's enough. I'm going to go get your clothes, and then you're going to get dressed. After you have accomplished that incredible feat, you are going to go back to your place grab your toothbrush and whatever else you need for tonight and tomorrow. Because we both have the 7:00 shift. So just bring your clothes and we'll walk to work."

"Yes ma'am." he answered with a fake salute. With that, she walked out of the room only to return a moment later, his clothes in hand.

"Get dressed, Ray."

**November 2, 2004**

_1:34 AM_

"Ray, you may not like sleep, but I do. I require more than an hour's worth of sleep to work at the ER. So please, stop." Anabel practically begged.

"Stop what?" he asked innocently.

"Stop kissing me and touching me. Just sleep," she answered.

"Can we at least cuddle?" Ray asked hopefully.

"Fine," Anabel said as Ray pulled her towards him, her back resting against his chest. He wrapped his arm around her and gently stroked her stomach.

The sensation was almost enough to put her to sleep, at least until she felt Ray's erection press up against her back.

"Let me ask you a question. Am I going to get any sleep tonight?" she asked exasperatedly.

"No." Ray answered simply.

"Fine, but at least try to keep it down this time. I do have children that are sleeping right down the hall, you know."  
"ME? You were the one who was doing all the moaning." he accused.

"I do believe that you were the one begging me not to stop and calling out my name, Ray," she recalled.

"Touché," he said.

"Get the condom, Ray, and kiss me already." she ordered.

Her box of condoms had run out at about 11:00 last night. Luckily, when he went home to "get the things he needed for tonight and tomorrow" he grabbed a box of condoms from his bedside table, knowing that she had to be almost out by know.

"Yes, ma'am." he said always willing to follow her orders in the bedroom.

_Later: 6:30 AM_

"Oh shit, Ray! It's 6:30! We got to get up!"

"I don't wanna!" Ray complained.

"Oh, don't even give me that! You were the one that wanted to stay up all night, not me! So get up!" she commanded.

"No," he moaned as he pulled the covers over his head.

"Fine, be late for work. I'm going to take a shower. Don't let me be in there for more than 10 minutes." Anabel called to Ray as she walked out of her bedroom and into the adjoining bathroom that also had a door that lead into the hall.

"Shower? Hell, why didn't you say that to begin with?" Ray was up, rummaging through her bedside table drawer for another condom, and pulled one out.

Anabel was rinsing her hair out when Ray stepped in.

"Ray! NO! OUT! NOW!" she half yelled.

"Why?" he asked curiously as he pulled her close to him and began kissing her neck.

"Because we have to be at work in 25 minutes and we don't have time!"

"There's always time a quickie," Ray said as he pushed her back up against the tile wall of her shower.

"God, you are going to make us so late," Anabel half-complained as she kissed Ray.

_7:15 A.M._

It turned out, Ray's "quickie" lasted 20 minutes. Which left them practically no time to get Logan and Tobias up, to get them dressed, drop them off with the neighbor that watched them until it was time for them to go to school, and to get to work to only be considered reasonably late, (that's even if they did run.)

Despite the fact that they were 15 minutes late (a 15 minutes that Anabel could not spare since she had bills to pay and didn't want to ask her parents for the money,) and the fact that she was kinda mad at Ray for making them late, she held his hand and walked into the ER with her head held high

Even though the ER was busy, everyone, and I mean everyone, Kerry, Susan, Luka, Sam, Carter, Abby, Pratt, Neela, Frank, Jerry and even the med-student Jane, suddenly stopped what they were doing and stared.

"What? Ain't ya'll ever see two people holdin' hands, before?" Anabel said defiantly, as she and Ray made their way to the lounge.

"You two are 15 minutes late!" Kerry said.

"Yeah, we know." Ray said.

"You wanna tell me why?"

"Do you want us to tell you the truth or a lie?"

"Never mind. Just put your stuff up and get out here on the floor, we're swamped."

The day passed fairly uneventfully, but Anabel knew that someone was bound to ask about her and Ray.

That person happened to be Sam while they were in the Lounge drinking coffee.

"So, I guess you and Ray are the new hot couple at County, huh?" Sam asked.

"Yeah, guess so." Anabel half-heartedly said.

"That the reason you were both late?" Sam asked.

Anabel just looked at her, smiled and blushed considerably.

"Hey, I'm not saying that there's anything wrong with being late because of a little morning loving. Trust me, Luka and I have been late so many times because of that!" Sam smiled.

They both laughed.

**November 23, 2004**

Even though Ray and Anabel had been a couple for 24 days, and it had been a well known fact for the past 21 days, they were obviously still in their "can't keep their hands off each other" stage.

At least 3 times a day, Kerry had to pull them out of drug lock-up, usually around the time when nobody had seen them for 10 or 20 minutes. Kerry immediately sent either Carter or Luka to go pull the two apart out of drug lock-up, where they had been busy making out and not noticing anything else. More than once, somebody, usually Sam or Neela, would open a curtain area and find the couple kissing and feeling each other up.

Ray even carried two condoms in his wallet, just in case he could talk Anabel into having a quickie with him in drug lock-up. Anabel, though, told him that while they could screw each other silly in his apartment, her apartment, his van, her SUV, or anywhere else he could think of, they could never ever, under any circumstances, have sex at work. Ray, on the other hand, just saw this as a challenge. And it was common knowledge that he loved a challenge.

"Hey, you going on break?" Ray asked one day, as he walked up to Anabel, who was standing at the admit desk.

"Yeah, I need one. I've been on for 5 hours already. Same as you," she said as she gave him a quick kiss on the lips.

"Good, then come with me really quick. I got something I wanna show you." Ray half-asked, half-demanded.

"Ray, if you try to show me the drug lock-up one more time, I'll hit you. Cause I'm actually hungry and want to eat food." she said seriously, though her tone was light.

"Nah, I got a new place that I want to show you," with that he grabbed her hand and led her down a small hallway she had never noticed before.

He finally stopped in front of a door that had "Janitor's Closet" on it.

"Ray, what are we doing here?" Anabel asked.

He didn't answer, instead he just opened the door, grabbed Anabel's hand and led her inside the closet. He moved a large, and apparently heavy, bucket in front of the door to ensure nobody walked in on their little tryst and to make sure she couldn't leave. He then, gently, pushed her up against a blank space in the wall and then grabbed her thighs to lift her up, so she was now eye level with him and her legs were wrapped around his hips. He smiled at her confusion.

"You know, I really have been a good boy. I've obeyed all these rules you have set up, which includes, but is not limited to: no making out at the admit desk; no feeling you up at the admit desk; keeping our make-out sessions in the lounge, drug lock-up and an empty curtain area; no serious kissing or unbuttoning your shirt in front of Logan and/or Tobias…. The list goes on and on! I have obeyed all of those rules and I don't even get a reward," Ray pouted.

"Yes, you do, actually. There's the sex in your car before and after work and ….." Anabel stumbled.

"Yes, exactly, 'and……' I don't get rewarded other than that. So, I've decided that since I'm a good boy, maybe you could break the rule about us having sex at work. Trust me, nobody knows we're here. Everyone thinks we're either in drug lock-up or in my van. Plus, nobody can walk in on us." Ray said with a smirk as he started to nibble on Anabel's neck.

Anabel moaned and wrapped her legs tighter around Ray. But, no matter how good it felt, Anabel knew she had to be logical and reasonable.

"Yes, you're right, Ray. You do obey the rules and hardly get any reward. But having sex at work isn't the best way to get a reward."

"Yes it is," he moaned as he slid her lab coat off and started to unbutton her shirt.

She moaned again and bit her lip. Anabel knew she was caving and as Ray untied the scrubs she always wore to work and pulled them down just a little, she caved.

But just because she was lost, doesn't mean she wasn't careful.

"Ray, two things." she panted.

"What?" he said as he continued to attack her neck.

"One, are you sure nobody can find us in here?"

"Yes," he moaned as he slid Anabel down his body to take her scrubs off.

"Ok. Two, do you have protection?"

Ray slid back up her body, having successfully removed her scrubs, panties and shoes, she wasn't wearing socks that day, (mostly due to the fact that she and Ray woke up late AGAIN this morning and she forgot them.)

Before Anabel could untie Ray's scrubs, though, he pulled a small foil packet out of the back pocket, and she smiled.

"I promise. Just a quickie this time."

Ray lifted Anabel back up his body and………

Ray was as true as his word this time. It was a quickie, because Anabel still had time to get her lunch from Doc Magoo's. She thought she might feel dirty about what having sex at work, but she didn't. She just felt extremely relaxed.

* * *

**Next Chapter Summary:**

Christmas in Baton Rogue with the new boyfriend. Oh, goodie. ;)


	6. December

**Chapter 6: December

* * *

**

**MG - **Trust me, the last chapter was essential in the story. But I guess it was also just a shameless filler. You guessed right, however, about Anabel's background. It will be in this chapter. Thanks for the review. J

**ShastenRothe - **What can I say? I love to make people laugh. Thanks for the review. J

**Terrible Fish - **That was exactly how I reacted when I caught my mum and her boyfriend in bed together, the morning after of course! Thanks for the review. J

**Smilingdork - **Thanks for the review. J

**All Readers: **This is my best friend's room that I'm describing. Trust me, it just works.

* * *

_blah blah blah_ means translation, they are at the end of the sentence/paragraph

One word translations at the bottom.

* * *

**Summary:**

Christmas in Baton Rogue with the new boyfriend. Oh, goodie. ;)

**December 6, 2004**

"Hey, baby," Anabel said as she walked up to the admit desk where Ray was standing, looking over a chart, and gave him a quick kiss on the lips.

"Hey," he said as he smiled.

"What?" she asked.

"Do you realize that at this time two months ago, you wouldn't of been caught dead saying 'baby' to me?"

"Yeah, well you give me a few reasons to say 'baby' to you now," she said with a suggestive grin.

"Here?" he asked grinning expectantly as he wrapped his arms around her tiny waist.

"Get your mind out of the gutter, Barnett. I didn't mean it like that!" she said, not backing out of his grip, but just giving him a playful smack on the shoulder.

"Well, you can't blame a guy for trying," he grinned.

"Yes, I can." Anabel said as she leaned up to give Ray another kiss, this one just a little bit longer than the last.

"Mmm, actually there is something you can do for me," she said with an innocent grin.

"What?"

"Come with me to Baton Rogue for Christmas." Anabel said hopefully.

"Now why would I want to do something like that?"

"Because I asked you to, nicely might I add." she said truthfully.

"Yeah, but why?" Ray still wanted to know.

"Because, I hate going there for the holidays. I'm always yelled at by my mom for showing up without a date. Even when I point out that Logan and Tobias are my dates, she still yells. Please don't put me through that kind of torture. Please, please, please, please!" Anabel practically begged, wrapping her arms around Ray's neck.

"What's in it for me?" he wanted to know playfully.

She just gave a smirk and leaned in to whisper something in his ear.

When she had said what she wanted to, Anabel leaned back to look at Ray's face. He was grinning that cocky little grin of his and asked, "Really? You'd do that for me?"

"Only if you come to Baton Rogue with me and the twins." she reasoned.

"All right, you convinced me." he said with a smile.

"Good, now I'll see you later, because I'm off now and you aren't," she gloated to him and stuck out her tongue.

"You coming by my place after your done here?" she wondered before she went into the lounge.

"Yeah. I'll be there about 4."

"Good. Oh, and don't forget to ask Kerry for the 22nd through the 27th off. If you have to, trade days, or else I won't hold up my end of the bargain. Bye, lover," and with that, Anabel went into the lounge.

* * *

**December 23, 2004**

_1:00 PM_

"Ok, so say 'please' and 'thank you,' but remember it's 'merci' to your grandmother," Anabel reminded Logan and Tobias.

"Why is it 'merci' for grandmaman?" Logan asked.

"Because she's half-French, and French is her first language. Plus, it makes her happy when people talk in French to her. And, trust me, it's good to make my maman happy." Anabel answered.

"Jesus. Aren't we in Louisiana? Shouldn't it be warm here?" Ray complained.

Anabel looked at Ray and fixed his jacket and said, "Sorry, you have been grossly misinformed."

"You know what? I'm having a bad feeling about this," Ray said.

"Hey, don't worry about it. Just say 'please' and 'thank you' but what ever you do, don't say it in French. My mom won't be impressed."

Anabel turned from Ray and knocked on the huge front door. The house itself was 2-stories not including the attic. It was white with large windows and the trim around the windows and the door was hunter green. There was a three car garage next to the house and a huge oak tree next to a hedge fence on the left side of the yard.

The door opened and a little boy, no older than 4, screamed and slammed the door when Anabel said 'hi.'

"Friendly place," Ray said, his voice full of sarcasm.

"Shut up," Anabel said as she knocked again.

This time, a woman in her sixties who was wearing a velvet, ankle-length green dress, opened the door. She smiled broadly when she saw Anabel, Tobias and Logan. She seemed to pay no attention to Ray.

"Anabel, bonjour. Entré." The woman said as she opened the door wide. _Anabel, hello. Come in._

Anabel ushered Logan and Tobias forward before saying, "Bonjour, maman." Hello, mom.

Anabel hugged her mother and preceded in a conversation with her.

"Il est si bon de vous voir!" Mrs. Walker said to her daughter. _It's so good to see you!_

"Il est si bon de vous voir!" Anabel returned. "Va-t-il comment le papa? Est-il ici?" _It's so good to see you! How's dad? Is he here?_

"Il est bon. Oui, il est ici. Il est en haut." Mrs. Walker said to her daughter in a rich, sophisticated voice. _He is good. Yes, he is here. He is upstairs_.

"Y en a-t-il des autres ici?" Anabel questioned her mother curiously. _Are any of the others here?_

"Oui, petite bébé. Ils sont tous en haut dans la salle de divertissement," Mrs. Walker said to her daughter. _Yes, little babe. They are all upstairs in the entertainment room._

Mrs. Walker then turned to Logan and Tobias and smiled broadly. She pulled them into her stomach for a tight hug, Tobias and Logan looking at each other with a look of confusion and worry, and then pushed them back a little and pulled their chins up so they would look at her right in the face.

"Comment mes deux six vieux petits-fils vont-ils préférés d'an?" she asked them with joy in her voice. _How are my two favorite six year old grandsons?_

Anabel looked at her mother with a sad look and said, "Ils ne parlent pas la maman française." _They don't speak French mom._

Mrs. Walker looked at Anabel shocked. She then said in a stern voice that was lined with disappointment, "Pourquoi pas?" _Why not?_

Anabel shrugged and said, "Puisque je n'ai pas circulé à les enseigner." _Because I haven't gotten around to teaching them._

Mrs. Walker shook her head and said exasperatedly, "Anabel, vous ne devriez pas avoir honte de votre héritage." _Anabel, you should not be ashamed of your heritage.  
_Anabel just looked at her and rolled her eyes, for she had heard the "you should not be ashamed of your heritage" line a million times. She then said, to avoid and argument with her, "Je sais, maman." I know, mom.

It was then that Mrs. Walker noticed Ray. She looked him up and down and crinkled her nose in disgust. She then said, in her most haughty voice, "Qui est-ce qu'ou que c'est?" _Whom or what is that?_

Anabel walked over to Ray and pressed her body against his right arm. She rested her left hand on his shoulder and wrapped her right arm around his waist. She then said, "La maman, ceci est mon Ray Barnett d'petit ami." _Mom, this is my boyfriend Ray Barnett._

"Ray, this is my mother, Angelique Walker. Offer her your hand," Anabel whispered into his ear, as she let herself back up off of his arm so he could.

Ray held his right hand out for Mrs. Walker, who just looked at in disgust.

Anabel saw her mother's reluctance and said sternly, "Maman, secouez sa main." _Mom, shake his hand._

With a lot of reluctance, she did and then turned to Anabel and asked curtly, "Pourquoi l'avez-vous apporté ici?" _Why did you bring him here?_

"Il a voulu vous rencontrer, plus vous se plaignent toujours au sujet de moi n'ayant pas une date. Maintenant je," Anabel said proudly. _He wanted to meet you, plus you are always complaining about me not having a date. Now I do._

"Je ne peux pas vous croire," Mrs. Walker said to her daughter. _I can't believe you._

"Maman, il est grossier pour parler en une autre langue devant un invité. S'il vous plaît, parlez en anglais," Anabel said to her mother. _Mom, it is rude to speak in another language in front of a guest. Please, speak in English._

Mrs. Walker forced a smile and said, "Welcome, Mr. Barnett. Anabel will show you where you will be sleeping," and with that, and a swish of her skirt, she walked out of the room.

"Is she always this nice to your boyfriends?" Ray asked amusedly.

"You're the first one I've brought home, ever. I think she wanted someone who was more clean cut and less rocker." she said with a smile.

"Is that what you want?" he asked with fear in his voice.

"I want you, just as you are. Nobody's opinion matters," Anabel said as she leaned in to kiss him.

"You will be staying with me in my old room," she said with a raised, suggestive eyebrow. "Logan, Tobias, you know where you're staying."

"Yes, mom," they said in unison as they climbed the stairs and rounded a corner, disappearing from sight.

Anabel grabbed Ray's right hand with her left, and with her right, grabbed her bag. Ray held onto her hand with his right and with his left, grabbed his bag, as Anabel led him upstairs. She walked them to a door at the end of the hallway, which, when opened, held a flight of stairs. Anabel and Ray jogged up the stairs to yet another door, and Anabel opened it.

Inside, Ray was surprised to find, that the room wasn't green, like it was back in her Chicago apartment. Instead, Ray found that the room was that of a teenager who loved music and was rebellious. The walls were painted a violent shade of orange and he could barely make out the music and its lyrics on the walls, written for 12 years in yellow highlighter. She lined her roof with Christmas lights, but she had an ordinary light bulb in it's socket. Ray saw 4 huge black lights that were mounted on the wall strategically, and he even saw a strobe light sitting on her stereo which was sitting on her dresser. The windows were tinted and when Anabel clapped her hands twice, the Christmas lights came on. Ray saw an old keyboard on its stand next to the closet and in front of it was a swivel chair that hung from the ceiling and had no legs (so he figured, it must be kinda like a hammock.) Ray then saw that there was an old amplifier in the corner and he saw several Gibson guitars and a bass lying either in their stands or, in the bass guitar's case, lying in a fluffy white chair waiting to be played. In the corner, opposite the door, there was a desk that had polka dots painted on it. On the desk sat a lap top and an old scrapbook, that Ray supposed that Anabel had made when she was younger. Anabel walked over to her stereo and turned it on to a local rock station and let the music play softly. She then walked over to what looked like several different colored shower curtains that were sewn together to reveal her bed. Mounted on the wall above her bed was an acoustic guitar, with yet another, smaller, black light waiting to be turned on. Her queen size bed had a zebra comforter with huge blue, green and orange pillows and smaller pink, black and white pillows. There were two black pillows stacked in front of the others, one said "punk" in white letters and the other said "rock" in the same white letters. He could barely make out the sheet sets underneath it, but he saw that it was black and white checkers. The bed skirt was solid black, however, with no visible designs.

"I'm surprised your mom let you decorate your room like this," Ray said as he took in the room.

"My mom doesn't come up here. I don't think she's ever been up here," Anabel said as she laid down on the bed and motioned for Ray to join her.

As he laid down next to her, he asked her, "Why is your room up here?"

"I wasn't expected by my parents. They wanted 7 children. But when I was born, I slept in my parents room until I could sleep through the night without crying. After I could, they put me up here. At first it was really feminine. Then, as I got older and my style changed, this is what happened." Anabel explained.

"It's very…unique." Ray said as he searched for the right word.

"I know. The rest of my family had their own style. Chris was always into the military so his room was always in the green camouflage kind of thing. Mary Jane was into the very preppy kinda thing so her room was always pink. Joey was sporty, so his room had tons of sports things. Matt was into planes, so he had all the model planes and stuff like that in his room. Savvy was very school spirit, so her room was decorated with the old megaphones and things from school. Georgia was very into the human body so she has all of these pictures of the anatomy in her room. Eric didn't really have a style, so he just kept his room white with posters of his favorite stars and musicians. I'm the only one to be really eclectic about my style."

"So if no one comes up here, how come there's no dust?" Ray asked.

"Lisa, the maid, comes up here to dust. I've been begging my mom to send me my guitars and stuff, but she won't. I don't think she likes the fact that I write and play music." Anabel answered.

"So nobody comes up here?" Ray asked suggestively as he removed Anabel's coat from her shoulders.

"Lock the door, Barnett."

Ray did as he was told and then went back to the bed. Anabel and Ray stripped each other in a hazardous frenzy and, as soon as they were naked, Anabel backed away from Ray long enough to close the curtains that went around 2 sides of the bed. She then went back to ravish her lover.

Scarcely 20 minutes later, there was a knock on her door. Ray and Anabel froze.

"Anabel, descendent. Le déjeuner est prêt." Mrs. Walker said through the door. _Anabel, come down. Lunch is ready_.

"Soyez là dans une minute, maman," Anabel shouted over the music. _Be there in a minute, mom._

They heard her departing footsteps and the door at the end of the stairs close.

She looked up at Ray and smiled. He did the same.

"Did I say stop, Barnett?" she asked in a sultry tone.

_20 minutes later_

Showered and changed, Ray and Anabel made their way downstairs to the dining room, where the grown ups were gathered for lunch. As she entered, there was an uproar from her brothers, sisters and her father. They all came around to hug her and kiss her on the cheek.

"Anabel, it's so good to see you!" was heard more than once.

"Who's this?" Savvy asked her little sister about the hottie that followed her into the dining room.

"Oh, this is my boyfriend, Ray Barnett," Anabel said as Ray stuck his hand out to shake theirs.

"Please, sit down," Mr. Walker said to Anabel and Ray as he motioned to the two empty seats next to him.

As they ate the lunch of ham, stuffing, several kinds of vegetables, rolls and biscuits, they made small talk. Mrs. Walker, who looked at Ray like he was an insect of the worst kind, made subtle comments to or about Ray that just avoided being rude.

"So what kind of work do you do, Mr. Barnett. Selling newspapers, or apples or something of a similar nature?" Mrs. Walker asked.

"Actually, I'm a doctor. Like Anabel." Ray said politely.

"Oh, really? I never would of guessed." Mrs. Walker replied rudely.

"Yeah, maman. Ray's also in a band. He's such a great musician." Anabel replied excitedly.

"I expected as much." Mrs. Walker said snootily.

"So how did you two meet?" Mary Jane wanted to know.

"We actually work together, Mary Jane. It was my first day at County, and Ray, thinking he was 'it and a bag of chips,' as our friend, Abby, has said, walked up to me, introduced himself, and said my name was pretty. I didn't like him, at first, so I walked away. Then, later, after my shift was over, he asked me out for coffee. I told him 'no,' because I had to go pick up Tobias and Logan. Though, of course, I didn't tell him about them until they had an allergic reaction to some strawberries that I was going to indulge myself in."

"Why did you wait so long to tell him," Georgia asked.

"I didn't exactly tell him. I had to bring Tobias and Logan into the ER, and Ray took care of Tobias," she explained.

"So, when exactly did you decide that you were going to sleep with my daughter, Mr. Barnett?" Mrs. Walker asked.

Anabel, who was in the process of chewing on a piece of ham, started choking so hard, that Ray had to slap her on the back to get her to stop.

Once Anabel had swallowed the ham, and after she took a drink of her milk, she said loudly, "Maman!"

Mrs. Walker just looked at her daughter as if she had said nothing wrong.

"Excuse me," Anabel said as she got up from the table, stormed out of the room, ran up the stairs, and then they heard the first door slam, followed by the second one, though it was softer than the first.

"Excuse me," Ray said as he ran after Anabel.

"Are you happy, maman?" Joey asked as he leaned back into his chair with his arms folded across his chest.

"Anabel?" Ray asked as he knocked on the door at the top of the stairs.

Anabel didn't reply, but instead got up, unlocked the door, and opened it.

She walked back to her bed, and laid down there. Ray followed her, making sure to shut and lock the door behind him.

"Hey, what's the matter?" he asked her as he spooned behind her and rested his right arm across her waist.

"Nothing," she said, burying her head deeper into her pillow.

"Anabel, please," Ray said.

Anabel turned over to face Ray. "It's my mom! I can't believe she was so rude to you! And to ask you the question about us sleeping together is totally unacceptable. I'm sorry. I didn't think she was---"

Whatever else Anabel was going to say was killed off with Ray's kiss.

"Anabel, trust me, alright. It's fine. In fact, I kinda expected it. She doesn't think I'm good enough for you. I get that, alright. All parents think that about their kids' other half."

"But, still, Ray---" she began.

"But nothing. No matter what I do, I will never be good enough for you, according to your mom. Sometimes, I think to myself that I'm not good enough for you."

"You are. You are perfect for me." Anabel said and she kissed Ray again.

"Sleep. You're tired." Ray said as he rolled onto his back and Anabel curled up next to him, resting her head on his chest.

"Yeah, because of you," Anabel said softly as she drifted off to sleep. Ray fell asleep soon after.

* * *

**December 24, 2004**

_9:00 AM_

"Merry Christmas Eve, Anabel," Ray said as she woke up the next morning.

After they fell asleep, they didn't wake up. Not for dinner, or for anybody or anything for that matter. They were exhausted.

"Merry Christmas Eve day, Ray," Anabel corrected as she stretched next to him.

"So how do you want to celebrate? Shower? Wake-up sex? Breakfast in bed?" Ray asked.

"I just want to lie here, all day, just like this. Is that ok, too?" Anabel asked.

"Whatever you want, baby" he answered.

"Mmm, try bébé, instead of baby. I've been called petite bébé all my life, so try bébé, since I'm no longer petite." she said.

"Bébé," he whispered to her. "So, what are you going to call me?" he wondered.

"Amoureux," she whispered after a moment of silent thought.

"What does that mean?" Ray asked.

"Lover." Anabel answered.

They fell back asleep, whispering the pet names that they now had for each other.

_Noon_

"Anabel, Ray," came a voice through the door. It belonged to Savannah, "Savvy" as she was known to by friends and family.

"What?" Anabel called out from her peaceful slumber.

"Come down. Lunch is ready. And nobody has seen the two of you since yesterday's lunch. Tobias and Logan are worried that you left of something."

"Okay, we're coming," she called out.

"Ray," Anabel whispered.

"What?" he asked in his sleep.

"Come on. Get up." she pressed.

"Why?" he asked.

"I'm hungry," she said.

"Okay."

Today went better than yesterday. Mrs. Walker didn't make any comments that just barely avoided being rude. Everybody was happy that Anabel had finally come out of her room, so there was no point in being rude.

As they sat down for dinner that night, Mr. Walker made conversation.

"So, Anabel, how's your music going?" he asked curiously.

"Good. I'm going to take my keyboard and my guitars with me when I leave though," she replied.

"Why?" Mrs. Walker asked her daughter.

"Because I need them to write songs."

"Anyway, what I was thinking, Anabel, that since you're the only one in the family that isn't tone deaf, maybe you could play the piano and sing Christmas songs for us." Mr. Walker continued.

"Yeah, sure, daddy." she replied.

In the music room, Anabel sat at the piano and started to play as everyone, her parents, brothers, sisters, their spouses, nieces and nephews, and Ray, Logan and Tobias sat down to listen to her play and sing.

She started out with her favorite.

_O Holy Night  
The stars are brightly shining  
It is the night of our dear Savior's birth  
Long lay the world in sin and error pining  
Till he appeared  
And the soul felt it's worth  
The thrill of hope  
The weary world rejoices  
For yonder brinks a new and glorious morn  
Fall on your knees  
O hear the angel voices  
O night divine  
O night when Christ was born  
O night divine _

_O night, o night divine _

_O Holy Night  
The stars are brightly shining  
It is the night of our dear Savior's birth  
Long lay the world  
In sin and error-pining  
Till he appeared  
And the soul felt it's worth  
The thrill of hope  
The weary world rejoices  
For yonder brinks  
A new and glorious morn  
Fall on your knees  
O hear the angel voices  
O night divine  
O night when Christ was born  
O night divine  
O night, o night divine_

When she had finished, everyone had at least one tear in their eye. Anabel found that she had this effect on people when she sang Christmas songs. Chris always said it was because she had such a powerful voice when it came to those songs.

"Play 'Away in a Manger,' Aunt Anabel," asked her 3-year-old niece, Susie.

Without even a second thought, she launched into the song.

_Away in a manger  
No crib for a bed  
The little Lord Jesus  
Lay down his sweet head  
The stars in the sky  
Look down where lay  
The little Lord Jesus  
Asleep in the hay _

The cattle are lowing  
The poor baby wakes  
But little Lord Jesus  
_No crying he makes  
I love thee Lord Jesus  
Look down from the sky  
And stay by my cradle _

_Till morning is nigh _

Away in a manger  
No crib for a bed  
The little Lord Jesus  
Lay down his sweet head  
The stars in the heavens  
Look down where he lay  
The little Lord Jesus  
Asleep on the hay

_Away in a manger  
No crib for a bed  
The little Lord Jesus  
Lay down his sweet head  
I love thee Lord Jesus  
Look down from the sky  
And stay by my cradle  
Till morning is nigh _  
_Stay by my cradle  
Till morning is nigh_

Once again, as she finished the song, someone else requested a song.

"Play 'O Come all ye Faithful,' Aunt Anabel," asked her 13 year-old nephew, John.

She flung herself into the song.

_O come all ye faithful  
Joyful and triumphant  
O come ye, o come ye  
To Bethlehem  
Come and behold him  
Born the King of angels  
O come let us adore him  
O come let us adore him  
O come let us adore him  
Christ the lord _

Sing, choirs of angels  
Sing in exultation  
O sing, all ye citizens

_Of heaven above  
Glory to God  
Glory in the highest  
Oh come let us adore him  
O come let us adore him  
O come let us adore him  
Christ the Lord _

O come all ye faithful  
Joyful and triumphant  
O come ye, o come ye  
To Bethlehem  
Come and behold him  
Born the King of angels  
O come let us adore him  
O come let us adore him  
O come let us adore him  
Christ the Lord

"Okay, my voice is kinda tired so one more and then it's to bed for me." she said.

"Why?" moaned the younger children.

"Because Santa won't come if everyone stays up all night." Anabel explained.

"Play my favorite, Anabel," Mrs. Walker requested.

_Silent night _  
_Holy night  
All is calm, all is bright  
Round yon mother  
Virgin and child  
Holy infant, so tender and mild  
Sleep in heavenly peace  
Sleep in heavenly peace _

Silent night

_Holy night  
Shepards quake at the sight  
Glory streams from heaven above  
Heavenly hosts sing Alleluia  
Christ the Savior is born  
Christ the Savior is born _

_Silent night  
Holy night  
All is calm, all is bright  
Round yon virgin  
Mother and child  
Holy infant, so tender and mild  
Sleep in heavenly peace  
Sleep in heavenly peace  
Sleep in heavenly peace_

As she played the last notes on the song, she yawned and when she played the last note, gently closed the lid to the piano over it. She stood up and everyone clapped. Anabel did an over exaggerated bow to everyone and said good night. Ray said good night to everyone and then followed her upstairs to her room.

_Midnight:_

"So is this what Christmas is all about?" Ray asked as he held a ragged-breathing, sweaty Anabel.

"Kinda," she replied. "This is what it's about to my family."

"I've never really had a Christmas like this," Ray said.

"What kind of Christmas' do you have?" she asked.

"We spend one day with each other and then say good-bye the next day," he said simply.

"Oh….Ray?" Anabel asked.

"Hmm?" he answered.

"What was your sister like?" she wondered.

"What?" Ray asked as his eyes flew open at the question.

"You don't have to tell me if you don't want to talk about it," she said quickly.

"No, it's okay. I was just shocked." he answered.

"So what was she like?" Anabel wondered again.

"Very beautiful. Strong, quiet, happy. She loved life. She was so smart! She started taking college level courses when she was 11th grade in high school. She was funny, too. She could make anyone laugh. Even my 'dear' aunt Lucille. Aunt Lucille, I guess she's your mother's equivalent in my family. (chuckle) Anyway, she wanted to be a veterinarian. She had this real affinity for animals." Ray paused.

"What was her name?" Anabel asked.

"Sarah."

"How did it feel when you found out that she died?" she pried.

"What is this? My own therapy session." Ray asked in an amused tone.

"I was just wondering."

"How do you think I felt? I felt horrible. Like it was my fault or something. As the older brother, I think it was in the handbook that they gave us. You have to protect your little siblings." he babbled.

"I wouldn't know. I'm the youngest, remember? Chris left for college when I was 2, and then joined the Marines when I was 4. I've never been super-super-super close to anyone in my family. I mean, I still love them and all and we call each other every once in a while, but we don't have that kind of bond where we call each other everyday and stuff."

"I guess I never talked about Sarah's death because of that. Because we were super close. Even though we were 7 years apart. I've always been able to protect her, you know? Like from bullies, and scaring her boyfriends, and from my friends who thought they might try to sleep with her. But the one moment that she needed me to protect her, I wasn't there. It's my fault she's dead." Ray admitted in a slightly raised voice.

Anabel chuckled slightly, though it was against her better judgment.

"What's so funny?" he asked, toning his voice down to a whisper again.

"You. Luka. You sound like him. Blaming yourself for a death that you had no control over. Ray, there's nothing you could of done to save her. She didn't deserve to die, yes, that's true. But blaming yourself for her death and thinking of all of these 'if only I had done…' scenarios in your head isn't going to bring her back. Or make you feel better. The only thing that'll do is drive you to an early grave. And me insane in the process." Anabel explained.

"I guess. But, I still…"

"No buts, Ray." she said and she kissed him again.

"Okay, no buts." he relented and pushed himself over her again, making sure to grab a condom in the process.

* * *

**December 25, 2005**

_7:00 AM_

"Aunt Anabel! Aunt Anabel! Wake up! Santa came!" shouted Anabel's three-year-old niece, Jessica.

Jessica was running up the stairs, opened the door to Anabel's room, and pushed back the canopy.

Ray and Anabel were snuggled tightly into each other, and naked, not that anyone that young could really tell.

Anabel was glued to Ray's left side, his left arm under her body and wrapped around her waist. Her head and her upper-half of her body was half-way on his chest. Ray's other arm was laying across his chest, gently holding Anabel's left hand. Ray's head was facing towards Anabel and was gently kissing the top of her head.

Jessica climbed up on the bed, which wasn't difficult considering the bed sat on the floor and not in a frame. She jumped on the bed and continued shouting, "Aunt Anabel! Aunt Anabel! Wake up! Santa came!"

When Anabel finally cracked open an eye and saw her happy and energetic, a little too happy and energetic she thought, niece, she finally managed to say, "What is it?"

"Santa came!" Jessica repeated. "We're all waiting for you and Mr. Ray so we can open presents."

"Okay, just stop shouting!" Anabel demanded. "Go downstairs and tell everyone we'll be down in a minute. And close the door on your way out."

The moment the door closed, Ray opened his eyes. Anabel looked at him and put on a mock anger expression.

"You were pretending to be asleep the whole time, weren't you?"

"Yeah." he answered simply. "Is it always like this in your house at Christmas?"

"Yeah."

"Well, then. Let's not keep the kid's waiting."

"You mean, let's not keep you waiting." Anabel laughed as she kissed Ray lightly before she got up to go to the small bathroom in the corner of her room, which held a stall shower.

"You coming?" she asked Ray, just before she got to the bathroom door.

"Yes, ma'am."

_7:15 AM_

With no time for fun in the shower, Anabel and Ray just took a quick one together and in less than 10 minutes were downstairs and in the living room, which held a 12 foot tree and was decorated beautifully.

Anabel's entire family, minus her brother Chris, who was still in Iraq, was sitting in room, waiting for them.

Ray then looked at Anabel and whispered, "I didn't realize your family was so big."

"We are ready to open presents, if you would please sit down." Mrs. Walker said coldly, mostly towards Ray.

Anabel and Ray found a seat behind Tobias and Logan, who were sitting in front of the small loveseat that was placed in front of the picture window for the holiday season.

Mr. Walker, who sitting in a chair right next to the tree, reached behind him and pulled out the first present, which was a large, about 5 feet tall, but kind of thin, box, and read, "To Judy. From Santa."

"That's Judy, Mary Jane's youngest daughter." Anabel whispered.

Ray watched as a little girl of about 8 get up from her place and go over to Mr. Walker. She gave him a small kiss on the cheek, as he helped to push her present in front of everybody and he laid it down for her. Everybody watched as she unwrapped it and as she gave out a shriek of joy.

"What is it?" Mary Jane asked her young daughter.

"It's a kitchen, mama. Santa brought me a kitchen." Judy exclaimed.

Mary Jane walked over to her daughter and explained to everyone, "One of those pretend kitchens with the microwave, stove, sink, fan, and phone."  
"That's a lovely gift, Judy. Isn't it Ray?" Anabel said to her niece.

"Yes, it is." Ray agreed.

Mary Jane lifted the box up and pushed it up against a wall so it was out of the way.

Mr. Walker, reached down and grabbed another present.

"To Michael. Love Santa."

Once again, Ray watched as a woman holding a baby, whom he assumed was Michael, go up and get the present from Mr. Walker. She, like Judy, kissed him on the cheek before she took it.

"The woman is Alexandra, she's Chris' wife. The baby is Michael. He's about 4 months old. Product of the last time Chris was here." Anabel whispered to Ray.

"So how long does it take for all of the presents to be handed out?" Ray asked in a whisper.

"Usually about 2 or 2 ½ hours. Maybe 3." she answered honestly.

"Three hours!" he exclaimed in a whisper.

"Yeah, well, I have a big family. These aren't even all the presents. These are the presents from Santa. The ones from each other are in the other room."

"Good God. Why did I agree to come along? If I had known that I would be sitting in a room for three hours, I wouldn't have agreed to come." he whispered as he rolled his eyes.

"Yes, you would of. Because I still have to hold up my end of the bargain." she said suggestively.

"If you two are done conversing, we would like to get on with opening the presents." Mrs. Walker said coldly, once again, mostly towards Ray.

* * *

With presents done, finally at 10:00, Ray and Anabel, instead of going back up to her room, decided to spend Christmas morning with Logan and Tobias, who had gotten a lot of new presents for Christmas. They built with the Lego's that had been given to Tobias, and played with the Monopoly Junior game that had been one of Logan's presents from his grandmother.

Dinner was celebrated with more than anyone could eat in one sitting, and once again mild conversation was made. They talked about nothing in particular, and Mrs. Walker, once again, avoided saying anything to Ray.

By the time everyone had eaten and everyone had had a shower, or a bath in the younger kids case, it was almost 11, and everyone was tired.

_3:00 AM_

"Tell me more about your family," Ray asked Anabel while they were lying in bed.

"Mmm, what do you want to know?" she asked right back.

"Just anything."

"Well, as you can tell, I don't get along with my mother. But I do get along with my dad. My mother is kinda paranoid, thinking that people should talk to her only in French. It pisses her off when people talk to her in English. She has never liked any of my boyfriends, and thinks that I can't make any decisions for myself. She believes that I should marry someone rich, like one of her 60-year-old friends, so she can be rich also. I don't think that she even loves my dad. I think she only married him for his money. As you can tell, my father is really laid back. He comes from a rich, bohemian family. So he's fun and everyone's favorite grandparent. He thinks that I can make my own decisions and that I should be free to express my individuality. But I think he's scared of my mom. Chris, he's my oldest brother, and a Marine. I think he could break you in half if he tried hard enough. I don't really know him. It's like one of those things that you hear about your entire life, but you don't know if it's true. You know?"

"Not really." Ray answered with a smile.

"Anyway, I grew up hearing about him, and I mostly heard from him through the mail. Last year, he got away for Christmas and we sat down and talked about a lot of things. Logan and Tobias love him, he even sent them presents on their birthday, remember?"

"Yeah, I remember."

Anabel moaned as Ray gently stroked her back, and she snuggled closer to him.

"Mary Jane, whose real name is Mary, we just all call her Mary Jane because her middle name is Jane. She's the real preppy kind. She's the lawyer, though. Mom was so proud of her. Ugh! She's got her own law firm in Boston. I think she likes you though. She's a complainer, and I haven't heard her complain all Christmas. Joey is a paleontologist. He's on a dig in Arizona right now, looking for a something or another. Tommy was in school with him. They were buddies. Now they aren't because Tommy's attention, or lack thereof, towards Tobias and Logan." she explained.

"Wait. Tommy was Joey's friend?" Ray asked.

"Yeah. Trust me, Joey wasn't too happy when he found out I was sleeping with his friend. He was angry when he found out that I was pregnant, but was pissed when Tommy left. Ever since, he's called every few months to check up on me. He's really the only one who does. Because if I gave my number to every member of my family, I wouldn't get my work done, at all, because they would call me all the time. Anyway, Matt's the pediatrician. He's got his own practice in Seattle. Dad was happy that Matt chose to work with little kids. Mom wishes he would make a better career choice. It's like she's foreseen her future, or her ideal future, that is, and wishes that we hadn't done half the things that we have done in our lives. Mom hoped that Matt would be an astronaut and work at NASA. Ha!" Anabel paused to catch her breath.

"Sounds like your family is…complicated." Ray chose his words carefully.

"Yeah, it is." Anabel laughed.

"So, go on. We've gotten through Matt." Ray encouraged.

"Anyway, Savannah or 'Savvy' as we all call her and Georgia are twins. As you can tell, twins are common in my family. Savvy is a Oriental Diplomat. She can speak English, French, Korean, Japanese and Mandarin. She's always been interested in languages, and started to learn Japanese in 6th grade. Korean was her high school language and Mandarin was her choice language in college. She works for the government and just got back from assignment in Japan. Georgia, on the other hand, became a dentist. She's in her third year of residency in San Antonio. After that, she's going to open her own practice. I guess my brothers and sisters like to use my parents money. I hated it though. So I got some 'starting out' money and left Louisiana. Went to Chicago, started working at County, met you. And you know the rest of the story. Oh yeah, Eric. He's a linguist, specializing in dead languages. Ancient Egyptian, Celt, that sorta thing. He works in Washington, D.C., too. I think they think he's a fool, though."

"Well, everyone is entitled to their own opinion. So what was it like? Growing up with money?" Ray wanted to know.

"Not as grand as you might think. As I said, my mom is a freak. Plus, with me being up in my room a lot, I guess I kinda missed what was happening with the family. My mother tried to discourage me from learning guitar and other music instruments she deemed 'inappropriate' so my childhood was filled with rules. I wasn't planned. My mother wanted seven children. Ya know, 'lucky number seven.' So she was embarrassed of me. All my life she has. I've gotten used to it, though. She puts on this charade of the loving mother when in front of other people. Like when we first arrived, Logan and Tobias were there so she acted like she actually cared about me. It sucked. Basically, yeah." Anabel explained.

"Well, you don't have to worry about it." Ray then noticed, for the first time, a scar on her wrist.

"What happened here?" he asked as he picked up her hand to look at the scar more closely. It wasn't deep, and it didn't touch the artery, but Ray knew what it was.

"When I was 15, I slit my wrists." Anabel said. "It was stupid. I know it was. But my mom just finally got to me, ya know. I went into the kitchen…grabbed a steak knife…and cut myself. My dad found me. He took me to the hospital, and they put me in the psych ward for three days. I got out after my dad promised the doctor that I would go to see a therapist. Which I did, for a while. He diagnosed it as: me needing to spend more time with my family. Yeah, right. Anyway, my dad called my mom on the way home from the hospital, told her where I'd been. I don't think she even knew I was gone. When I got home, mom pulled me into the study. I think dad thought she just wanted to make sure that I was ok. But she didn't. She yelled at me, saying that 'Walker's don't get sick' and stuff like that. She slapped me… and then left like she hadn't done anything wrong. That was the first time she ever hit me. It wasn't the last. She slapped me when I asked her about coming to my high school graduation, and when she found out that I was pregnant and at least once every Christmas." Anabel recalled her life, hesitantly.

"And yet, you still come every Christmas." Ray pointed out.

"Kinda like me trying to live up to what I think she would want me to be. Me trying to show her what I've done with my life in the past year. Is that wrong?" Anabel asked.

"No, no. It's not wrong. Don't worry about her. I'll protect you." he said cockily.

"I'm sure you will." Anabel laughed.

"Sleep. We've talked enough, for tonight." Ray whispered.

"You're right." Anabel established and burrowed herself nearer to Ray.

Ray kissed the top of her head and said, "Good night, Anabel."

"Good night, Ray." she whispered back.

* * *

**December 26, 2004**

The morning after Christmas, unfortunately, didn't go as well as Christmas morning had.

Anabel and Ray made their way down stairs, their flight was going to leave that night and this was their last day to spend with her family. As they entered the family room, where the grown ups had gathered to chat, Ray wrapped his arm around her waist and tightened it when he saw Mrs. Walker looking at them. They sat on the loveseat, and started to whisper to each other over little things that made no importance to anyone but them.

"Ray, Anabel, why don't you join our conversation?" Mrs. Walker said pointedly.

"About what, maman?" Anabel asked.

"About you and Ray, of course." she said.

"Anabel, we weren't talking about you," Mary Jane said.

"We are now," Mrs. Walker demanded.

"What would you like to know, maman?" Anabel asked.

"Laissez-moi dire ce que juge je que je dois dire. Je ne peux pas vous croire. D'abord, vous êtes allé au loin et avez eu un bébé en dehors de de mariage avec un homme que vous avez à peine connu. Puis, vous le compensez légèrement en devenant un docteur. Maintenant, vous le jetez tout loin encore en raison de lui. Un aucun bon, culbuteur, qui ne commence pas même à répondre à mes espérances." Mrs. Walker said snootily. _Let me say what I feel I must say. I can't believe you. First, you went off and had a baby outside of marriage with a man you hardly knew. Then, you slightly make up for it by becoming a doctor. Now, you are throwing it all away again because of him. A no good, rocker, who doesn't even begin to meet my expectations._

"Ne dites pas cela au sujet du Ray! Vous ne pouvez pas me croire? Selon vous, tout que j'ai fait toute ma vie est vous embarrasse. Comme, il est mon long but ou quelque chose de la vie. Bien, conjecture ce qui, maman? Elle n'est pas. Je ne peux pas vous croire! Vous savez, pour une fois que je pensais que mon petit ami serait mon choix. Non un qui a dû rencontrer votre approbation." Anabel hollered at her mother as she stood up and started to walk out of the room. _Don't say that about Ray! You can't believe me! According to you, all I've done all my life is embarrass you. Like, it's my life long goal or something. Well, guess what, mom? It's not. I can't believe you! You know, for once I thought that my boyfriend would be my choice. Not one that had to meet your approval._

"Anabel, pas vous marchent loin de moi tandis que je vous parle!" Mrs. Walker bellowed to her daughter. _Anabel, don't you walk away from me while I'm talking to you!_

"Go to hell!" Anabel shouted as they heard her climbing the stairs.

"Logan, Tobias! Pack your things! We're leaving!"

"Anabel! Wait!" Ray yelled after her.

She didn't wait, though, and Ray ran all the way up to her room before she would even talk to him.

"What was that about?" he asked as he saw Anabel packing their bags.

"We're leaving, Ray. Logan, Tobias and me. We're leaving. If you wanna stay and be scorned at by my mother, you're more than welcome to." she said without stopping packing the bag.

"Ok, first off. I'm not staying here by myself. Secondly, I'm not letting you or the kids go anywhere by yourself. Thirdly, what the hell happened down there?" he pointed out and asked.

"My mom has decided that she can't believe me. That I went off and had a baby outside of marriage on purpose and then slightly made up for it by becoming a doctor. Now, I'm supposedly ruining it by being with you. Someone who doesn't meet her expectations! I told her that it's not my life long goal to embarrass her, and that for once I thought that my boyfriend would be my choice, not hers! God, she makes me so angry!" Anabel enlightened him furiously as she began stalking around the room.

"Ok, ok. Anabel, calm down! Calm down." Ray said as he grabbed her arms and sat her gently on the bed.

"What?" she questioned in a much gentler voice than she was using.

"Your mom, she does not control your life. She doesn't control Logan's or Tobias' either. Your mom has no say whatsoever in your life about anything. Do I make you happy?" he wanted to know.

Anabel looked at him stunned for a second at his sudden change in topics. But answered, "Yes."

"From what you've told me, all your life your mother hasn't paid attention to you. Now she does, because you're happy. You wanna leave? Fine. Let's go. You, Logan and Tobias are the only three things in my life that are important to me. I don't care about your mother. I wanna keep seeing you, so that's what I'm gonna do. To hell with her if she thinks she's gonna keep us apart."

"We sound like a couple of teenagers." Anabel smiled.

"We act like a couple of teenagers," Ray said as he kissed her gently on her lips.

"I don't wanna stay here anymore. Let's leave."

"Do you wanna come back anytime soon?" he inquired.

"Not in particularly."

"Then, in that case, pack what you can't live without. We're busting outta this joint," Ray said toughly.

"See if they can push our tickets up to an earlier flight. I'll pack."

30 minutes later, Anabel had all of her clothes packed, even the ones that she had left in her closet when she had moved out. She had her keyboard, her guitars and the CD's she had forgotten when she left all put in their cases. All in all, she had more than what they were going to allow on the plane.

"I guess we need to drive up, huh?" Ray asked as he looked around at Anabel.

"Yeah, I'm thinking about taking everything out of this room and taking it up to Chicago with me." Anabel said.

"And put it where?" I've seen your room. It's already full." he wondered.

"So I'll redo my room. I like this room better anyway. I'll sell the green stuff to a thrift store or whatever. I'll put my green desk and computer in the twin's playroom, leave the mattress and box-spring here, and put it up in my room. You know what? Why am I arguing about this with you? It's not like you live with me!" she argued.

"I spend every night in your apartment. That's about as close as you get to living together without actually living together as you can get."

"Well, they couldn't bump up our flight anyway."

"And we can call Kerry and tell her we'll be late." Anabel agreed.

"We can rent a car from Enterprise or whatever and drop it off up there." Ray found himself agreeing.

"You want me to call Enterprise?" he asked.

"Yeah. Get a big car though, I'm taking everything. Ask for one with foldable seats." Anabel said as Ray picked up the portable phone again and started dialing information.

45 minutes later, with everything packed in boxes and a car waiting for them in the driveway, Ray and Anabel lugged everything down two flights of stairs to the door. In under 15 minutes, the car was packed, with the remarkable help of the stow-and-go seats and Anabel started making her good-byes to everyone.

"Bye, Mary Jane." she said as she hugged her eldest sister.

"Have a good trip." Mary Jane offered her sister.

"Bye, Joey."

"Tell him to drive safe." Joey warned.

"Bye, Matt."

"You shouldn't of listened to mom. But I can understand why you did." Matt said as he hugged his youngest sister.

"Bye, Savvy."

"Know this. I liked him." she said as they both laughed.

"Bye, Georgia."

"You chose a good one." Georgia commented.

"Bye, Eric."

"Be careful."

"I will. Bye, daddy."

"Bye, pumpkin. And ditto on everything they said. I love you."

"Love you, too."

With that Anabel got in the van, buckled her seatbelt as Ray started the car and backed out of the driveway.

With a final honk of the horn, the van disappeared out of the Walker's sight.

When the car was out of sight, they all turned to Mrs. Walker, who had been standing in the doorway, and said, "I hope your happy!"

**LONG CHAPTER! 19 PAGES! JUST SO YOU KNOW, THERE WILL BE ONE MORE CHAPTER WITH FRENCH IN IT. BUT ONLY LIKE 18 SENTENCES, NOT HALF OF THE STORY. HOPE YOU ENJOYED IT.**

_Merci _- Thank you

_Maman_ - Mom

_Bébé _- Baby

_Petite_ - Little


End file.
